Kindred Spirits 12
by Skye Silverwing
Summary: A girl with special powers flees the man she once called her father, only to end up in Nerima. A Ranma/Danny Phantom/Sailor Moon cross.
1. Chapter 1

Kindred Spirits 1/2

By Skye Silverwing

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these shows.

Chapter 1: A New Life (So to Speak)

The rain fell hard on the City of Los Angeles as a young girl with black hair and blue eyes hid from her pursuers inside a cardboard box. The ghostly vultures in the employ of the man she had once called father had been hounding her for weeks, ever since she had managed to escape his Lab with the assistance of her "cousin" Danny.

She wished desperately that they would leave her alone long enough to get a good night's sleep. Then perhaps she could try to fight against them. As it was, it was taking most of her will and energy just to hold her form together and resist melting into a puddle of ectoplasmic goo.

Thinking she had lost the blasted birds for once, she leaned heavily against the side of the box and let her eyes drift closed, the ratty sweat shirt, shorts and hat that she wore whenever she was in human form offered her a little warmth, and at least in the box she was dry.

She was just dropping off when a shiver ran down her spine and a puff of blue mist drifted out of her mouth. She was immediately awake, peeking out of the open end of the box. It did not take long for her to spot what had triggered her ghost-sense. Across the street, atop a dumpster, there stood a glowing green ghostly rat, looking in the opposite direction. She had always thought about how appropriate it was that such creatures worked for Vlad.

She suspected that the vultures had tracked her to this area and sent the rats to find her exact location, so that the more powerful ghosts could move in and finish her off. The rat had not found her yet, but it was only a matter of time, if she remained here.

Gathering her strength, she closed her eyes. A ring of light appeared around her waist, separating into two rings that traveled to the opposite ends of her body, replacing her clothes with a black and white outfit, including a form-fitting black and white shirt, gloves and pants and all white shoes. Her hair changed from black to white and her eyes became a ghostly glowing green. She turned intangible and phased through the back of the box, then through a chain link fence.

She found herself faced with a huge open area, where the rain glistened on the tarmacs that showed this to be the Los Angeles International Airport. As she watched, 500 yards from her position, a 747 taxied across the runway. With a sudden plan forming in her head, she turned invisible and shot out from her place by the fence, flying low and fast, and sliding intangibly through the hull of the plane into its cargo hold. She had no idea where the plane was headed, but it had to be better then here.

As she touched down inside the hold, she let out a startled gasp as a small pool of ectoplasm began to form at her feet. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, willing the green goo back into her body.

Totally exhausted, she phased through a large crate and was pleasantly surprised to find it was full of soft cloth. Shifting back into her human form, she shifted some of the cloth around, creating a nice, warm comfortable spot, where she quickly curled up and fell asleep.

Little did young Danielle know, that upon the box that she had chosen for her sleep, next to the address information there was a note, written in Japanese.

"Dear Ranma, Genma, Soun and Family," the note read, "I have been having a great deal of fun in LA. The City of Angels is indeed home to some very lovely women. Thank-you for convincing Pantyhose to fly me here. I was a little concerned that you would be mad at me after the whole, 'drinking your cure at the wedding' thing, but then you arranged this nice vacation for me. How lucky a master I am to have such respectful students! I have been playing with local police, but they are not nearly as fun as Ranma in their attempts to stop me. In this crate is the first of several loads of my brand-new collection of silky darlings. I would appreciate it if you would put them with the rest of my stash (Ranma, you know where it is). I am determined to get one for every starlet on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, so I will be gone a while longer. Don't get soft in my absence. When I return I will expect improvement in all of my students. Sincerely, Happosai."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

In his clock tower in the Ghost Zone, the Time Ghost called Clockwork shivered. Something had happened that he had not foreseen. Using his powers, he viewed the Ghost Boy's clone. Much to his surprise, he realized that she had left his Jurisdiction. Running time back, he found that, in a single moment, she had somehow connected with a chaos beacon. Even Clockwork could not foresee events connected to such beacons before they happened. Nor could he time travel to change them.

The Time Ghost shifted to an elderly state as he checked all the current data. The box was bound for Japan. Setsuna's Jurisdiction. The old ghost's form shifted to that of a child as he chuckled at the thought of a wildly bouncing ball of chaos impacting the careful stack of events that Plutonian Princess was trying to build. Summoning a bowl of popcorn and a reclining chair, he sent the "Guardian of Time" a simple message.

"A Halfa is coming."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

"A Halfa is coming."

Setsuna Meioh's head popped up. Her Key to the Gates of Time appeared in her hand and she checked the probable futures again. There seemed to be no change, but she knew that there was no place in it where a halfa, whatever that was, could fit. It could only mean that it was an event connected to a Chaos Beacon. This could endanger Crystal Tokyo.

She did not know what to look for, but she tried checking events around the nearest Chaos Beacon she knew of. She could not let fifteen thousand years of preparation be ruined by one random event, but for now at least, she could only wait and watch and do all she could to stop whatever came.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi Tendo stood in her kitchen, smiling thoughtfully. In the time since the last attempt to get her sister, Akane, to marry her fiancé, Ranma Saotome, she had found herself cooking less and less for the boy. It disturbed her somewhat that despite their best intentions, Ranma's other girlfriends simply would not stop shoving food into his mouth in an attempt to bribe him into choosing them. For Kasumi, food was a manner of expressing her feelings for her family, not some paltry attempt to convince them to love her. Food should reflect the feeling of the one who cooked it, not those that the cook wishes to instill in the one eating it.

It was this philosophy that caused her to smile now, as she cooked a special meal for Ranma, while the rest of her family was out. The boy, who was currently in female form due to the recent rain and temporary lack of hot water, was standing next to her, assisting her in the labor of making Dinner for just the two of them. She was smiling, too.

For Ranma, this was a truly rare moment. Ukyo Kuonji, Cologne, and Shampoo had gone to a small business owner's convention in Hokkaido, and would not return until the next day. Akane and her middle sister, Nabiki, were in Osaka, checking out a college Nabiki intended to attend, Soun Tendo and Ranma's father, Genma, were out drinking and bemoaning that one of Soun's daughters would soon be leaving him, Kodachi Kuno had rolled her ankle in her last Gymnastics match, so she and her brother, Tatewaki had flown out of the country to have it looked at by the best physicians in the world. To top it all off, Ryoga was lost. That meant that no one was around to fight, glomp, mallet, spatula, charge, or otherwise distract her from her task of helping the Eldest Tendo Daughter with their dinner.

They were just putting on the finishing touches when the doorbell rang. Kasumi hurried to see who it was like a good hostess. Ranma sighed. She liked it when she had the chance to spend time with Kasumi.

After a few moments the Elder girl returned. "Ranma-kun, it seems that Grandfather Happosai sent a package from America." She said pleasantly, showing Ranma the note that had been attached. "Could you bring it in and put it in his room as he asks?"

If it had been anyone else, Ranma would have given a snide remark or threatened to burn the crate and everything inside. It was, after all, Happosai's fault that she was still stuck turning into a girl when she got hit by cold water. He drank the cure.

This was, however, Kasumi asking, so Ranma smiled. "Sure thing, Kasumi." She said, heading into the living room and lifting the crate.

As she hauled the crate into the other room, something inside it shifted with a soft thump, causing Ranma to stiffen. Happosai had claimed in his note that he was not going to be back for a while, so that could not be him inside the box. With her mind rushing through the possibilities, Ranma extended her ki senses into the box, detecting a small, diminishing source of ki.

Concerned, she tore the lid of the box open.

Back in the Kitchen, Kasumi prepared the food so that the two of them could eat as soon as Ranma returned. She knew that Ranma was mad at Happosai over what had happened at the Wedding, as well as numerous other things, but she was determined to help everyone who lived in her home get along no matter what.

A concerned cry suddenly rang out. "Kasumi!" Ranma dashed into the room, carrying an unconscious child in her arms. She laid the girl next to the table. The poor child looked pale and drawn.

Kasumi moved quickly to her side. "Oh, my!" She said, placing a hand on the child's forehead and then checking her vitals. "Ranma, this girl is half starved, and she seems to be suffering from some kind of ki poisoning! Call Dr. Tofu, tell him it is an emergency!"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Usagi Tsukino and Minako Aino sprinted side-by-side up the stairs and across the yard of the Hikawa shine. Both had heard Makoto's dire threat and neither wanted to be the one on which it was focused.

Charging through the last few feet, the race was decided when Usagi slammed head-long into one of the supports holding up the porch roof. As she lay twitching on the ground, Minako entered the meeting room and turned around. "I win!" she declared, holding up her fingers in a "V" sign.

Makoto Kino sighed. "Usagi, you are the last to arrive," she said, knowing full well what their Future Queen's response would be, "So you don't get to eat any of my fresh-baked cookies."

The blond girl sat up where she was. "But… But… The pole got in my way…" She said, whimpering for a few moments before the flood Gates opened. "WAAAA!!! I want a cookie!!!"

Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh smiled at the princess's antics and turned back to watching their adopted daughter, Hotaru, as she taught her best friend, Chibi-Usa, the future daughter of Usagi, to play cat's cradle.

Ami Mizuno glanced up from the book she was reading, sighed and went back to it as Makoto handed Minako her prize.

Rei Hino rolled her eyes. This was how things had been since the fall of Sailor Galaxia. The Senshi would plan to have a meeting, but with few new monsters and no new enemies, there wasn't a particularly large amount of Senshi business to discuss. Most of the time, the meetings degenerated into social visits. The nine girls would just sit around and enjoy the pleasant company, while musing about how their lives would change when they finally brought about their ultimate destiny, Crystal Tokyo.

Today was different, though. As the Miko of the Shrine, Rei performed fire readings that often allowed her to foresee events of import in the near future, and she had seen something in a recent attempt that had caused her some concern.

Rei looked down at the sobbing form of their leader. "Usagi, quit blubbering!" she said, "We don't have time for this. We have serious business to discuss."

Suddenly, all attention was focused on the raven-haired miko. Even Usagi instantly stopped her tantrum to stare at her. "Business?" she said, "As in, 'World in Peril' kind of business?"

Rei nodded. "I did a fire reading last night." She said, "In the reading, I saw a pair of beings with white hair and green eyes standing before a swirling green vortex, and as they stood there, a host of evil beings poured out, threatening everything we love."

The girls looked at each other in shock. "But didn't Setsuna say we didn't have anything big to worry about from now on?" Minako asked, looking at Haruka and Michiru, who lived with the Time Senshi when she was home.

"Yes, I did." Setsuna said, suddenly appearing behind Usagi and making her jump. "Unfortunately whatever is coming is connected to a Chaos Beacon, which means I can't foresee it."

"Chaos Beacon?" Ami asked, looking concerned. Chaos had been the force behind Galaxia, after all.

Setsuna smiled reassuringly at the blue-haired girl. "Consider it to be a kind of defense against an individual misusing the Gates or other methods of time manipulation." She said. "Chaos Beacons are invisible to the Gates, so the Gates cannot see the events they trigger until they happen. I received a warning this morning from an old friend that something is coming, but I wasn't sure what. Now I am certain that whatever it is, it is a threat to us and everything we have worked for."

Chibi-Usa gasped. "You mean it might endanger Crystal Tokyo?" she asked.

Setsuna gave the eight-year-old a sympathetic look. Crystal Tokyo was the girl's home before she came back in time, and her mother and father were there. "Yes." She said, "Crystal Tokyo may not come to pass if we cannot find a way to stop this threat."

The rest of the girls frowned. This could be a threat to everything they held dear. The thought of losing their happy ending was depressing.

Usagi raised her hand. "Umm… I have a question." She said. Everyone looked at the twin-ponytailed girl. "Since Setsuna came in after me, does that mean I can have a cookie?"

Everyone face-faulted.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Dr. Tofu Ono hurried to the Tendo Dojo as quickly as his martial arts training would allow. He vaulted walls and jumped from rooftop to rooftop in a manner not unlike the person who called him for this house call.

Tofu was not the type of man to go charging across the ward like that, but Ranma had seemed frantic when she had called, begging the Doctor to come as quickly as humanly possible so he could help a child that Ranma had found in a crate.

What really concerned the Doctor was that the boy (then a girl) had told him that the child seemed to have some sort of ki-poisoning. He just hoped that he could get there in time.

As he reached the wall of the Tendo compound, he vaulted over it, landing in the yard and entering the house. "Ranma!" he called, "Where is the patient?"

Hearing the Girl call to him from the Kitchen, Tofu hurried into the room and was stopped dead by the sight of Kasumi sitting next to the small form of the child in question with the red-headed girl-type Ranma hovering worriedly nearby. Kasumi was sitting there, carefully spooning some soup into the child's mouth, making sure that the little girl swallowed it.

Ranma saw the look on the Doctor's face change, his glasses suddenly fogging up with the madness that always overcame him when Kasumi was near him. "K-K-Kasumi…" the Doctor stuttered. "Fancy meeting you here…"

That was as far as he got, because in the next moment, Kasumi had stood, crossed the room and slapped him across the face. Hard. "There will be none of that, Doctor!" she said, a stern look on her face as the bewildered doctor snapped back to himself. "This girl is very sick, and she needs your attention right now!"

Dr. Tofu just nodded and moved to the child's side while Ranma stared at Kasumi like she had grown a second head.

Tofu carefully examined the girl, checking her vitals and physical health. He quickly determined that she was suffering from exposure and lack of oxygen, which made sense given her means of transport. He also found that she was suffering from exhaustion and minor starvation. Other than that, she seemed to be fine, physically. When he extended his ki senses, to read the girl's ki flows, however, his examination told a different story.

Tofu rubbed his eyes and looked again. "This girl's ki… it is half dead." He said, eliciting a gasp from Ranma and a concerned look from Kasumi.

"How is that possible?" Kasumi asked. "I thought dead ki only occurred in a living creature when a part of their body is dead, like with gangrene or frostbite. None of this girl's tissue seems to be dying."

Tofu was glad that the girl had retained so much of what he had taught her before his Kasumi madness began to set in. "I am not sure." He said. "The strange thing is that the Dead ki seems to be spread through her body. If not for the living ki mixed with it in equal portions I would believe this girl was a ghost or something similar."

Ranma looked at Dr. Tofu, a very serious look on her face. "What can we do for her, Doc?" she asked.

Tofu sighed. "I am not really sure." He said, "For now, we should treat her for the oxygen deprivation and exposure from being in a crate on a plane, feed her and put her to bed. She seems to be exhausted."

Ranma carefully lifted the girl and took her into Kasumi's room while Kasumi prepared something a little more high in nutrition. Dr. Tofu administered some minor medications as the red-head sat with the girl's head in her lap.

When Tofu was done, he smiled to see the girl curl up, cuddling nearer to the feminized Jusenkyo victim, causing her to blush slightly.

Tofu sighed. "Ranma, if we are going to do anything about the girl's ki, we will need someone with more experience than Me." He said.

Ranma understood what he meant. "So I need to go see Cologne Tomorrow." She said simply. Tofu nodded. Ranma sighed. "She will want something in return, but if she can help, I will do it."

Tofu nodded again and then departed.

When Kasumi returned she found Ranma asleep with the girl curled up next to her. The Eldest Tendo was so touched by the scene, that she put set the food aside and lay down next to them, opposite Ranma, drifting off to sleep herself.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

A.N. Yes, I am planning on doing the whole Ranma vs. the Senshi thing, at least a little. Yes, I am planning on RanmaxKasumi as the main romance, though this is really a "Ranma in a parental role" fic, so any fiancé that decides to help him with that is likely to improve her odds. Yes, there is a high probability of more than one other Halfa showing up. Finally, there is a chance of a Halfa in a Fuku. *grins* Let me know what you think.


	2. Introductions

Kindred Spirits ½

By Skye Silverwing

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Chapter 2: Introductions

Dani was warm. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she was safe. Every fiber of her semiconscious being wanted to remain where she was, in the comfy warmth for as long as she could. There was, however, something else that made itself known. A scent. This scent drifted into her nose and triggered one of the most basic and primitive needs that a human could feel: Hunger.

Not yet powerful enough to pull the girl from the oxygen-deprivation induced slumber, the hunger took over on auto-pilot. The girl's hand reached out, seeking food to sate the hunger. It quickly encountered something soft and warm. This was determined to not be food, but some kind of barrier. The hunger was the only important thing, though. The hand became intangible, reaching through the barrier, and locating the plate of food on the other side.

The plate was quickly emptied as the unaware ghost nourished herself, then, finally, with the hunger sated, she turned the other direction, wrapping an arm around the comfortable soft thing and sank back into the depths of sleep.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Akane and Nabiki Tendo arrived home early the following morning. Nabiki wanted to initiate plans to move the base of her intelligence network to Osaka. Knowledge was, after all, power, and power means money.

The two began to realize that something was wrong when they called that they were home and no one answered. Kasumi was normally up by now. When they reached the kitchen, their concern grew. The table was set, the dishes jumbled, and food left to get cold.

Akane looked at her sister. "Nabiki, where is Kasumi?" she said, concern coloring her voice. "You don't think she was kidnapped, do you?"

Nabiki looked around the kitchen, running the numbers. "Maybe." She replied. "I suppose it has been a few weeks since the last time anyone got kidnapped, and you weren't here. Though I can't imagine that Ranma would let it happen."

Akane nodded, but looked worried all the same.

Nabiki sighed. "Tell you what," she said, "you go check Kasumi's room and I will check the Dojo."

Akane nodded and the two of them headed off.

As she headed for the Dojo, Nabiki noticed a large crate on the porch. Its top was shattered, and it was full of panties. Nabiki sighed as she realized that the answer seemed to be Happosai.

Upstairs, Akane quietly approached Kasumi's room. Listening and hearing rhythmic breathing within, she opened the door intending to wake her sister for once.

Then, taking in the scene before her, she stopped. Kasumi as there, of course, but it was the flash of red on the other side of her that annihilated all reason. All conclusions were forgone save one: Ranma and Kasumi were sleeping together.

Her mind, blanked by shock, was filled with rage in moments. Without another thought, she summoned her Mallet-Sama and, with a battle cry of "RANMA NO HENTAI!" drove it down on the offending fiancé, glowing with righteous fury.

To her credit, Ranma was used to getting Malleted in her sleep, so when she opened her eyes to see it coming down at her, she was simply going to let it hit her. Then she remembered the child sleeping next to her. She could not let her overly violent fiancée harm the child, so she through a protective arm over her.

The mallet impacted with a shattering crash, splintering the wood underneath it.

Awakened by the crash, Kasumi sat bolt upright and stared at the mallet that now rested where Ranma and the mysterious little girl had been moments before. "Oh, my God!" she cried, "What happened to the child? Akane! What did you do?!"

Ranma and the girl were nowhere to be seen.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

To Danielle's credit, she was used to having to immediately defend herself upon waking up. She had opened her eyes to that strange battle cry and seen some kind of mallet wielding maniac bearing down on her. She immediately went intangible and dropped through the floor. The Red headed girl that had chosen that moment to grab her had been pulled along for the ride.

They slammed down on the floor of the kitchen below, and the Red-head lost her grip on Dani. Seeing that she was not anyone she recognized, the clone girl decided that the most prudent course of action was to assume the worst and flee before she regained her senses to try to capture her again.

She ran out the back, dodging past another girl as she fled. These people could be enemies for all she knew; in the employment of her lunatic of a father.

Even if these people were not working for Vlad, Danielle knew that the ghostly beasts in the employ of that deranged fruitloop had some way of tracking her over long distances. She had to assume that whatever it was could track her even over the ocean. I mean, it wasn't like someone was going to walk up and steal the offending piece of her clothing from a pair of ghostly vultures, right?

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

A day earlier, back in LA…

Happosai grinned happily as he shot along the streets. He was vaguely curious as to why a pair of ghostly vultures had been carrying a pair of panties, but for now the birds were proving rather entertaining in their desire to regain the item. He assumed that the things were some sort of perverts, as the panties in question clearly belonged to a young girl who was somehow half dead. Realizing that the specters had fallen behind, the old man leapt to the top of a nearby building and fired a low level ki blast at them.

The vultures, seeing the blast and its origin, swooped toward him and phased through a billboard as though it was not there.

Happosai grinned again. These birds were going to be worth days of fun!

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma pushed herself up off the floor, surprised to find herself in the kitchen. The crash above her head showed that somehow she had fallen through the solid wood of the floor. She looked around for the girl she had been trying to protect, only to find that the child had apparently fled.

As she got to her feet, Nabiki entered the kitchen. "Ranma, what is going on?" the girl asked, "Who was that girl?"

Ranma was already moving. "She is a sick girl we found." She said over her shoulder, "Which way did she go?"

Nabiki pointed toward the back gate.

Without another word, pigtailed martial artist dashed off, leaving the confused middle Tendo in her wake.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Danielle ran, as she had a thousand times before; away from the comfort, away from the feeling of warmth that came with the thought of having someone who cared about her. Only Danny had ever given her that feeling before, but still she ran.

It took her only a few moments to realize that she was in Japan, since all the signs were in Japanese. She was more than a little surprised to find that she could read the signs. She supposed that Vlad had wanted to make his "perfect" Danny-clone more capable of running his multinational empire, and so programmed all the attempts with a wide scope of language knowledge. She grinned at the thought of Vlad's own plans assisting her in escaping him.

She had been running a while when she glanced back, spotting the red headed girl a little over a block away. Crossing a bridge over the canal, the girl vaulted over the guardrail and turned invisible, dashing up under the bridge. A few moments later, the Red-head dropped down from the street above as well. She looked around for a moment before a slightly confused look crossed her face. Then she closed her eyes, almost as though she was listening.

A moment later, she opened her eyes and looked right at Danielle's hiding place. When she began to move toward it, though, a voice rang out from the other side of the bridge.

"PREPARE TO DIE, RANMA SAOTOME!" Shouted the long-haired Chinese boy wearing a white robe and coke bottle rim glasses, "Today I shall liberate my Shampoo from your control!"

Danielle stared in confusion. Did he really just threaten to kill someone over a hair-care product?

The girl, whose name was apparently "Ranma", glared back at the near-sighted boy. "I don't have time to fight you right now, Mousse." She said, "I need to find that child. She is sick, and I need to take her to Cologne so we can figure out how to heal her."

Mousse growled. "Trying to trick me, Saotome?" he declared, "There is no child here. You will die, and I will have my Shampoo!" With that, the boy attacked, hurling bladed chains at the red-haired girl.

What followed was a battle the likes of which Danielle had never seen. The two warriors danced around one another, striking and parrying, and in some cases, blurring into motion faster than the cloned halfa could follow. They neared the canal, Ranma attempting to drive the Chinese boy into the water, but Mousse fighting just as hard to stay away from it.

Suddenly, without warning, the near-sighted boy lashed out with one of his bladed chains again, and Danielle's eyes widened as she heard the sound of blade solidly impacting flesh. Looking up, she saw the red-haired girl standing in front of her, a blood smeared blade protruding from her stomach.

Ranma pulled the blade free of her back and turned, glaring at the blind Amazon. "Mousse, you jerk." She growled. "You almost hit the girl!"

Mousse grinned. "Did I?" he said smugly, "Good. It makes you an easier target." He prepared to attack again, knowing Ranma could not move without endangering the child.

"LEAVE HER ALONE YOU BIG BULLY!"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Back at the Tendo house, a concerned Kasumi rushed into the Kitchen, where Nabiki still stood. "Nabiki! Have you seen Ranma and a little girl?" she asked.

The Middle Tendo nodded. "You just missed them." She said, "Girl was running out the back scared, and Ranma followed. What the heck happened?"

A still angry Akane entered to room as well. Nabiki took one look at her younger sister's expression and sighed. "What did Ranma do this time?" she asked.

Kasumi looked at her youngest sister with a look that had not crossed her face in a long time: Contempt. "Ranma and I found a young girl in need of medical attention last night." She said, "We called Dr. Tofu and he looked her over and told us to feed her and put her to bed. Ranma took her to my room and the two of them fell asleep. I went in later and joined them."

Nabiki nodded, realizing what had probably happened and sighed. "So Akane arrived, saw the three of you together and the girl ran, right?" she asked.

Kasumi shook her head. "I think Ranma must have somehow gone through the floor." She said, not looking convinced, "He must have used it to try to protect her."

Akane was still fuming. "Well, when he gets back, I still owe him a beating for being in bed with you." She said. "He is MY fiancé!"

Kasumi whirled to face her sister again, all concern replaced with rage. "Akane, how dare you insinuate that Ranma would do something like that, even light of all of the facts!" she railed, "I am taking the family agreement off your hands little sister, and I am going to do something Ranma should have done A LONG TIME AGO!"

With one swift motion, Kasumi pulled a fist back and delivered a perfect right cross into the side of Akane's face, sending the youngest Tendo reeling before she finally dropped to the floor in a boneless heap.

Kasumi turned on her heel and marched toward her bedroom, leaving a stunned Nabiki and an unconscious Akane in her wake.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma watched in surprise as a white haired, black-and-white attired girl flew out from behind her, coming to her defense. The girl's eyes blazed green as she glared at Mousse.

"What's this?" Mousse asked mockingly, "Has some sort of pixie come to Saotome's aide? What's next, tiny woodland creatures?"

He launched a knife at her, but to Ranma's surprise, the girl's color faded slightly and the weapon passed right through her to bounce harmlessly off the wall.

The pale child growled at the Hidden Weapons Master. "My Turn." She said, summoning a ball of green energy into her hand and releasing it in a bolt of energy that sent the boy flying back into the canal.

Ranma moved quickly to the girl's side as she began to waver, touching down as her energy was depleted. Ranma's concern increased greatly when a puddle of green goo began to form around the child's feet, as if she was beginning to melt. Noticing the change herself, the girl closed her eyes, seeming to be willing herself back together. The moment the goo vanished back into the girl's feet, a white ring of energy appeared around her waist, splitting in two and running the length of her body, revealing the girl Ranma knew.

Ranma caught the girl as she collapsed. Looking tiredly up at Ranma, the girl smiled. "My name is Danielle." She said in a tiny voice. "Please save me."

With that she closed her eyes and sank into sleep once again.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

When Ranma returned to the Tendo house with the child in her arms, she found a scene of controlled chaos.

Soun Tendo knelt over his unconscious daughter, sobbing, with Genma by his side and Nabiki was just sitting there, staring into space.

Ranma looked at the middle Tendo, certain that she could explain. "What happened?" he asked.

Nabiki's haunted expression turned slowly to look at the pigtailed girl. "K-K-Kasumi…" She whispered, "Kasumi… decked Akane!"

Without another word, Ranma grabbed a kettle of water from the stove and restored his male form, then stepped over his unconscious fiancée, ignored the indignant squawking of his father and Mr. Tendo, and hurried up to Kasumi's room. He knocked on the door and heard her greet him. Opening the door, he took in yet another surprise: Kasumi was packing.

Kasumi looked up at Ranma and smiled when she saw the girl in his arms. "Oh, thank goodness you are both safe!" she said, but then she noticed the wound in Ranma's stomach, which was bleeding less in his male form. "You're hurt! What happened?"

Ranma uttered a low grown as Kasumi took the child and laid her on the bed and then moved to dress his wound. "Mousse found me before I found her." He said, "The idiot was so determined to get me that he deliberately caught her in the crossfire. Then she changed into a… I don't know… perhaps a ghost… and she saved me. When she was in that form, her feet started to melt. After she stopped that, she changed back, and passed out, but not before telling me that her name is Danielle, and asking me to save her."

"Oh, my!" Kasumi said, "Then we need to get her to Cologne as soon as possible."

Ranma looked at Kasumi's packed bags and looked up at her. "Are you leaving?" he asked.

Kasumi sighed. "Before I set Akane straight, I told her I was taking over the family agreement." She said, "I know it is imposing a little, but I think it would be wise for us to move in with your mother for a while, especially if we want to protect Danielle."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah." He said, "This place is a little too… hostile, for a kid, even with her… abilities."

On a whim, he moved close to his newest fiancée and kissed her on the cheek. Then he turned hand moved quickly from the room, in no small part to hide his blush. He returned a minute later with all his earthly possessions, as well as some items stolen from his father and Happosai, stored neatly in his travel pack, to find Kasumi was done packing as well, and Danielle had awakened.

The girl's face fell when she saw him. "Where is Ranma?" she asked.

Ranma smiled at her. "I am Ranma." He said, "I know I don't look like the girl you met, but that is because I have a curse that turns me into a girl when I touch cold water. I turn back in warm water."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "That's impossible." She said simply.

Ranma smiled at her. "Says the girl who can fly and shoot green beams." she countered.

Dani glared at him. "I happen to be Half Ghost." she stated.

Before the argument could go anymore, Kasumi put a stop to it by dumping a glass of cold water over Ranma's head.

Danielle's eyes widened as she watched the handsome black haired martial artist turn into the beautiful red-head she recognized from earlier. "Woah." She said, "That is so cool! It is like you have a secret identity and both of them are human!"

Kasumi stood up. "If you two are done revealing your respective secrets," she said, "I believe we have an Amazon to talk to."

With a nod, they all turned to leave.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Clockwork sat in his comfy chair, waiting. He calmly began to count down to what was going to happen next. "5…4…3…2…1… Hello Daniel."

The white-haired boy stopped and looked at him. "Clockwork, I need your help." He said.

"No." Clockwork said. "I am not going to let you do it."

Danny gaped at the time ghost. "But you haven't even heard what I need!" he said.

Clockwork fixed Danny with a stern look. "You want me to send you back to just before you went after the Box Ghost today," he said, "so that you can get the History Book that Dash Baxter beat you to because you had to fight the ghost."

Danny's face fell. "I have to write a report on the Great Depression," He said, "But Dash beat me to it. How else can I get the information I need?"

Clockwork looked at him.

A sudden thought dawned on the boy. "Oh. Right. Time Ghost." he said, curing himself for being an idiot. "Can you let me watch the events of the Great Depression from here?"

Clockwork rolled his eyes. "Yes, but you need to bring me something first." He said.

Danny smiled broadly. "Sure, what do you need?" he asked.

Clockwork smiled at him and handed him a list.

Danny read the list and raised an eyebrow. "A 5 pound bag of Popcorn, two Fenton Thermoses, a case of Mountain Dew, Two ecto-guns, and the Fenton Peeler?" he asked. "Why would you need these?"

Clockwork just smiled enigmatically.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

A.N. I apologize to anyone who was hoping that there would be Sailor Senshi in this Chapter. I figured the best thing to do was focus on Ranma, Kasumi and Dani for this one. There were several points in there where I really wanted to end the Chapter just due to the shock value, but as it was I ended it earlier then I had intended to. I wanted to go all the way to meeting Cologne, but I guess I will save that for next time.

As it stands, I think Ukyo may be the only one of Ranma's established fiancées that is likely to maintain any kind of chance at him. Akane is finished. I am certain that getting KO'd by Kasumi is something her ego will never recover from. As for Shampoo, well, that is next chapter.

Please review, give me ideas, and, if possible, remind me of assorted ghosts already present in the Tokyo area (in any show, I am not picky).


	3. Chaos Comes to Amity

Kindred Spirits ½

By Skye Silverwing

Disclaimer: I still don't own it.

Chapter 3: Chaos Comes to Amity

Kasumi smiled purposefully as she walked with Ranma and Danielle through the streets of Nerima. The erstwhile male martial artist carried the seemingly eight-year-old girl on her shoulders, and the girl talked about her life up to this point.

"… So Danny takes a deep breath and lets out his Ghostly Wail, causing all the instruments in Vlad's lab to shatter and blow up." She said, "But it took his friends crashing through the wall with the Specter Speeder to get us out of there. After that, I overshadowed Danny's parents to get him, Sam and Tucker out of trouble and then headed out to find a place for myself. I have been on the run ever since."

Kasumi clocked her head slightly. "I don't understand." she said softly, "Why not just go live with the Fentons? It seems to me that they would accept you, since you are Danny's clone."

Dani sighed. "It isn't that easy." She said, "Danny's parents still don't know about his ghost powers and with my… consistency problems, I could not hide my powers for long, and that would reveal him as well. Besides, Danny already has enough trouble with Vlad, what with Vlad's desire for Mrs. Fenton. I can't add my troubles to his."

Ranma's expression hardened. "So this 'Vlad' character is the reason we found you in the state you were in?" she said in a low voice.

Dani nodded, frowning slightly. "Vlad's ghostly minions hounded me all over the United States." She said. "I think he ordered them to prevent me from eating or sleeping until I couldn't put up a fight anymore. Then they would probably take me back to Vlad so he could dissect me to figure out why I was able to maintain my form so long when all the others turned into goo."

Ranma turned her head and looked up into the girls eyes. "We will NEVER let that happen, understand?" she said vehemently.

Kasumi nodded in agreement. "I for one would have a few choice words for Mr. Masters, should he ever appear." She said.

Dani shook her head. "No! I can't ask you guys to do that!" she said, "Vlad and his minions are far too dangerous! I am planning on leaving as soon as we see if the Amazons can make me batter, so that I don't draw them here."

Ranma stopped. "You don't have to ask." She said, locking eyes with the Halfa. "We are going to help you, whether you like it or not."

Kasumi stepped up, nodding certainly. "And don't you dare even think about leaving us behind to fight them on your own, young lady," she said, "because we would have to follow you, and that would make me rather upset."

Ranma chuckled. "Yeah, the last thing you want is to make Kasumi frown." She said.

Dani shuddered. Every fiber of her being told her that a frowning Kasumi was the LAST thing she wanted. "Okay, I won't run away!" she said, "But I still don't want to put you in danger."

Ranma was about to respond when the sound of a bicycle bell rang out from behind them.

Turning quickly, Ranma was just in time to see a bicycle tire as it sped towards his face… and shot right through him as Dani turned them both intangible.

Shampoo hit the ground with a bounce, surprised by the complete lack of resistance, losing control of her bike and careening into a nearby telephone pole. The bike frame broke, pitching the purple-haired Amazon face first into the steel pole, leaving a sizable dent in the pole.

Much to Dani's surprise, the girl got up and dusted herself off, neither unconscious, nor dead from the impact as one would have expected. Looking at the smile she directed a Ranma, though, the halfa decided that one could not rule out brain damage.

The bubbly Amazon looked only slightly confused at having missed the man she wanted to hit with her bike, and recovered quickly. "Airen! You is heading to Nekohatten, no?" she said hopefully, "You go to take Shampoo out on date, yes?"

Ranma frowned. "No, Kasumi and I are actually on our way to see Cologne." She said. "We need to find out if she can help Danielle."

Shampoo cocked her head. "Who is Danielle?" she asked.

Dani sighed and dismounted Ranma's shoulders. "Not the brightest bulb in the box, is she?" she said, looking the Amazon over. "I am Danielle, and you must have hit that telephone pole too hard."

Shampoo glared at the girl. "What you say?" she demanded indignantly, then turned back to Ranma. "Airen, why you and Too-Too Nice Girl bringing Little Brat-Girl to see Great-Grandmother?"

Ranma looked at Shampoo, her features has hard as stone. "Danielle is sick." She said simply. "Something is wrong with her chi, and we are hoping Cologne will have the solution."

Shampoo's face lit up. "So Great-Grandmother help you, then you take Shampoo on date, yes?" she asked hopefully.

"No." Ranma said flatly. "If Cologne can help, I will be taking Danielle someplace safe."

Shampoo batted her eyes at him. "How about after that?" she offered. "Ranma take Shampoo on date after taking Little Brat-Girl to safe place?"

Dani cocked her head. "Not the brightest bulb in the box, are you?" she said, "The answer is no, you are not getting a date with Ranma. How many times does she have to tell you that?"

Shampoo glared at the girl with contempt. "Apparently, Little Brat-Girl decided to be obstacle," She said, drawing her bon-boris, "and OBSTACLES ARE FOR KILLING!!"

Dani giggled when she saw the cloth wrapped Amazon weapons. "What are those?" she said with a snort, "They look like stylized baby rattles. I mean, can those things actually- Whoa!" Dani sidestepped a strike and was surprised as the ground she had been standing on a moment before shattered under the force of the blow.

Ranma moved fast, transferring Kasumi to the top of a nearby building, hoping that Danielle could handle herself long enough to get the non-combatant out of harm's way.

The young halfa realized that this was not a fight she wanted to mess around in, circling her opponent, she prepared for the next attack. Shampoo swung her bon-boris at the girl again, adding all the more power to the attack when she saw the girl's confident smile.

Dani chuckled and phased backward through the pole that Shampoo had already damaged with her head earlier. "I take it back." She said as the weapon smashed the pole in two, "Apparently you had not hit the pole hard enough!" She then proceeded to push the upper part of the pole, dropping it squarely on the Amazon's head. Shampoo dropped in a heap.

Ranma frowned at Danielle. "You really should not have provoked her like that." She said, then turned to go and retrieve Kasumi again, calling over her shoulder as she went, "That WAS a nice shot, though."

Dani grinned. As soon as Ranma returned with Kasumi, they continued walking toward the Nekohatten.

Behind them, under the fallen pole, Shampoo's eyes opened; glaring with rage at the girl who dared to keep her from her Airen. She pulled herself to her feet, extracted her bon-bori from the pole, and charged at the girl, covering the distance at incredible speed. She would destroy the child for this insult, crushing her skull with the heavy mace. She bore down on her an unstoppable force of destruction.

Then something stopped her. Mere inches from the back of the girl's head, a hand extended and prevented the weapon from exacting the revenge Shampoo so desired. Her eyes followed the arm back to its owner, and she realized that it was Ranma. As she stared into those blue eyes, she saw reflected in them rage unlike any that she had seen in the martial artist's eyes before; or at least, not when Ranma had been looking at her.

To her credit, Shampoo did see Ranma move, if not quickly enough to stop the kick that buried her in the side of the next building over. For a moment, she lay under the pile of rubble, she thought that it was over, that she would be able to return and go after her target on another day, as had happened so many times before, when the target had been Akane or even Ranma himself. Then, she felt the debris around her shift as Ranma dragged her out, a concerned looking Danielle and Kasumi standing nearby.

Ranma held the Amazon girl up by the front of her shirt and glared directly into her eyes, exuding a level of deadliness that she had never seen directed at her before. Surely, this must have been what Saffron had seen in Ranma's eyes atop Jusendo.

Ranma shifted his grip, drawing the girl within an inch of his face. "I am warning you, Shampoo." He said in a deadly calm voice. "If you EVER try to harm Danielle again, there will be nowhere you can hide. I will find you and I will see to it that you can never harm ANYONE ever again! DO I MAKE MY SELF CLEAR?"

Shampoo nodded weakly. She knew that she had destroyed any chance she had at marrying Ranma. The pigtailed martial artist had as good as given her the Kiss of Death. She closed her eyes to receive the final blow that she knew was coming.

The blow was surprisingly weaker then she had expected, launching her skyward in an arc that dropped her directly into the bay.

Danielle was shocked at the show of raw force that Ranma had given in his defense of her. It scared her some, and she could tell it had scared Kasumi as well.

The homemaker slowly walked over to the redhead, looking concerned. "Ranma, was that really necessary?" she asked, "I mean, to threaten Shampoo like that…"

The redhead sighed. "Yes. It was necessary." She said. "Shampoo would have never gotten the point if I had just knocked her out like before. She would have just kept coming back until either I did this, or she managed to hurt Dani."

Not for the first time, Dani found herself wondering why protecting her was so important. First Danny, now Ranma. They sacrificed so much for her, and never asked for anything back. Making a decision, she chose to pay Ranma back for this, no matter what.

As that thought passed through Dani's mind, the stress of the fight caught up with her and she collapsed into Ranma's arms.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Usagi walked through the streets, arms wrapped around Mamoru's arm. Ahead of them, Chibi-Usa and Hotaru walked along, playing a game of I-spy. Technically, the four of them were "on patrol in civilian form", keeping their eyes out for white-haired characters and creepy green portals, but Usagi was never one to miss the chance to cling to her boyfriend, even if the need to play babysitter had stuck them with the two eight-year-olds.

The other girls were divided in groups of two, Ami and Minako, Makoto and Rei, and Haruka and Michiru. Setsuna was at the Time Gates, monitoring everything.

Usagi's communicator beeped. She pulled the compact device out and Rei's face appeared. "Have you found anything?" the Miko asked.

Usagi sighed. "No, Rei." She said, "We haven't seen any evil white-haired people or creepy glowing portals, and we have been out walking all day!"

Rei groaned. "It isn't even noon yet, dumpling head!" she said.

Usagi winced. "Ooooh… That means there is the whole rest of the day left to go." She whined. "Is stopping this, whatever-you-call-it really that important?"

Ami's face appeared in the split screen next to Rei's. "You heard Setsuna." She said, "This "Halfa" is a threat to our future. We must do everything in our power to stop it."

Minako suddenly pushed into the picture. "Yeah," she said, "and you know what they say; 'The early worm gets turned.'"

Makoto suddenly appeared on Rei's end. "Wow, Minako-chan," she said brightly, "I don't think you could possibly have butchered that saying any worse then you just did."

Minako grinned. "Thanks!" she said.

Everyone sweat-dropped. Usagi hit the call button to bring Haruka and Michiru into the conversation. "Haruka, Michiru have you guys found anything yet?" she asked.

"Nope!" came a hasty response from the other end, "We have been a little preoccupied."

Haruka's voice was interrupted by a giggle followed by some soft whispers and murmuring.

Haruka let out a startled gasp. "I can't talk now." She said, "Gotta Go!"Click!

Everyone on the line blushed.

Minako was the first one to recover. "You don't think they were…" she started, before trailing off.

Mamoru stepped up, changing the subject with extreme prejudice. "You know what, I think it is time to find some lunch." He said, hoping that the changed topic would stick.

Usagi looked at her boyfriend and the two kids and smiled. "Yay, food!" she said, clapping her hands and shutting the communicator even as Rei began to yell at them not to get distracted. "Where are we going to eat, Mamo-chan?"

Mamoru smiled at her. "How about there?" he said, indicating a nearby Ramen shop. Inside, they could see an old lady serving a bowl of Ramen to a customer.

Usagi beamed. "Yay! Ramen!" She said, starting toward the building.

Chibi-Usa looked at her would be mother. "Hey, shouldn't we be continuing our search?" she asked Hotaru.

The young dark-haired girl grinned back at her. "It can wait for later, I think." She said confidently, "I mean, what could possibly happen in a place called the Nekohatten?"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

"Whew, I'm Done." Danny said with a smile, looking over the notes he had written. "Thanks a lot, Clockwork. With these, I should be able to write a paper that will blow the Teacher away."

Clockwork just nodded, picking up a handful of popcorn and sipping a can of Mountain Dew without taking his eyes off the screen he was watching.

Danny could not hold his curiosity any longer. "So, what are you watching anyway?" He asked, looking at the screen that Clockwork was so fixated with. "One would think you would have seen it all already."

Clockwork shifted to his child-like body and smiled enigmatically. "Daniel, there are some events even I cannot see until they come to pass." He said. "I can guess at them though, and I find some of my greatest enjoyment in doing so. For example: I cannot see the future actions of a certain old man, but I know the creatures he is interacting with, so I can make a guess. You should return home quickly. You may be needed soon."

Danny nodded and raced out, leaving Clockwork to his entertainment.

Clockwork called up another screen to view the old man he had mentioned. Grabbing another handful of popcorn, he chuckled and prepared to watch the next chapter of this unfolding drama.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Happosai dodged from one tree to the next, using all of his considerable skills to avoid detection by his prey. While the birds had shown a truly valiant effort in their attempts to retrieve what he had stolen from them, it had only taken them a few days to give up the pursuit.

The Old Master had been hiding nearby when the vultures began to discuss how angry their master would be if they let themselves get delayed for too long, especially by such an old man. They had decided that it would be quicker to return to their master's base and retrieve another piece of the girl's clothing to track her with.

Naturally, this did not sit well with the Old Master. Sure, it was fun to prove one's dominance over adults; they tended to have over-inflated egos that could use some of the hot air removed; but if he was reading the chi right, the girl was no more than a child, and to deliberately harm an innocent in such a manner as the birds seemed to indicate was something that Happosai, or any other martial artist, for that matter, simply could not allow.

So as they made their way back to their master's lair, the aged man followed them while remaining out of sight, quite a feat, since the ghosts spent a fair portion of their time invisible, forcing him to follow based only upon the feel of their chi, which he could only feel from within a certain range of them.

They passed out of Las Angeles and through the mountains, Traveling hundreds of miles across plains, over rivers and through cities. Happosai kept up with his flying prey as best he could, but found that doing so while remaining unnoticed was a taxing task. As they reached the end of their journey, one of the vultures caught sight of the old man, and the two birds dropped down, phasing through the ground in order to escape him.

Not that that slowed him down much, as they hovered just below the surface, near enough for him to sense their chi. As he followed the trail, he passed a large billboard reading, "AMITY PARK: A NICE PLACE TO LIVE!"

Happosai chuckled. "Nice place to live, huh?" he said, "I doubt the ghosts would agree."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma carried Danielle in her arms as she and Kasumi entered the Nekohatten. There were two other groups in the dining room at the time; a pair of working stiffs on their lunch break, and a Young couple apparently babysitting a couple of kids.

Cologne was busy in the Kitchen, but hearing the bell over the door she called out, "Welcome to Nekohatten, I will be with you in a few minutes. It seems my employees don't understand that they should eventually return from deliveries, and as such have left me to run the store alone."

Ranma glanced at Kasumi and both of them nodded. As Ranma set Danielle down in a chair near the young couple, the girl began to stir, looking around to get her bearings.

Ranma smiled at her. "Dani, Kasumi and I are going to go help Cologne with her customers, since it is our fault Mousse and Shampoo did not make it back." She said, "We will be back as soon as we catch them up."

Kasumi nodded and turned to the young couple. "Pardon me, but could you keep an eye on her for us?" she asked in her best "No one can deny Kasumi" voice, "We know the owners and figure we can help them get the food out quicker."

The blonde with the funny hairdo smiled back at her. "We don't mind if it gets our food here faster." She said, "I'm famished! Oh, I am Usagi Tsukino, this is Mamoru Chiba, my boyfriend, and the kids are my cousin Chibi-Usa, and her best friend Hotaru."

Kasumi smiled at the girl, immediately taking a liking to her. "It is nice to meet you all." She said, "My name is Kasumi Tendo, my companion is Ranma Saotome, and this is Danielle."

Dani nodded weakly. "You can call me Dani, if you want." She said softly as Ranma and Kasumi disappeared into the Kitchen.

Hotaru looked the girl over with a rather concerned look on her face. "Are…Are you okay?" she asked, "You don't look well."

Dani smiled weakly at the girl. "Yeah, I just… get exhausted easily." She said, "Been that way since I was born."

Chibi-Usa looked from Hotaru to Dani. "Really?" she asked, "Hotaru here used to have the same problem."

Dani looked at the Dark-haired girl. "Really?" she asked. "You seem to have gotten over it. Mind giving me some tips?"

Hotaru winced inwardly. "I made some good friends and got away from some bad influences." She said, "Then I started getting out more and got a lot more exercise, and my strength just started going up."

She smiled at the rather pedestrian phrasing she had used for meeting the Senshi, stopping being possessed by Mistress Nine, and going out and fighting Youma. The other girl nodded.

Meanwhile, as Ranma and Kasumi entered the Kitchen, Cologne realized who they were. "Oh, Son-in-law," she said, "I am afraid you will have to wait like everyone else. Without Mousse and Shampoo here, there is only so much I can do."

Ranma nodded. "That's alright." She said, "Kasumi and I decided to help out, since it is mostly my fault that Shampoo and Mousse are not back yet."

Cologne looked at them and cocked an eyebrow. "Oh?" she asked, stepping aside to allow Kasumi access to the stove. "How so?"

Ranma sighed. "We found a young girl in a box Happosai sent home." She said, "She was sick and Doc Tofu said we needed to bring her to someone who knows chi better than him to heal her. She woke up this morning to Akane trying to flatten us both, and revealed certain…abilities, which she then used to dump Mousse into the canal. Then Kasumi and I decided to bring her here, and we ran into Shampoo. Shampoo threatened the kid, so I beat her up and told her that if she ever tried to hurt her again, I would kill her."

Cologne's eyes widened. "You beat up Shampoo?" she asked, "Really beat her, as opposed to just beating her enough that you can escape or stop her from doing what she was doing?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah." She said, "I figured out that if I did not really prove that I meant it, she would just come back and try to hurt Dani again."

Cologne nodded to herself. "Were you in your present form at the time?" she asked, indicating Ranma's Female form.

Ranma nodded, slightly confused.

Cologne smiled at him. "Then I proudly welcome you as a Sister into our tribe." She said, "In defeating Shampoo outright and proving yourself to be too much for her to kill, you have fulfilled the Kiss of Death, and earned your place as a female in the tribe."

Ranma stared at Cologne for a moment. "That's it?" she asked, "No more 'you will marry Shampoo, Son-in-law'. Just 'welcome to the tribe'?"

Cologne smiled at her. "If you had bothered to read the laws of our tribe, you would have learned that a decisive victory over Shampoo while in female form would have this result." She said, "As opposed to a victory followed by you fleeing or any victory in your male form, which result in her having to chase you all the more."

Ranma nodded, understanding. "So does that mean you will help me with Dani?" she asked.

Cologne smiled and then frowned as the bell on the door rang again, admitting several more customers. "Help me through this lunch rush, and I will see what I can do." She said.

Ranma nodded, put on an apron and got to work.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

A.N. If anyone thinks I am being out of character for Happosai, keep in mind that the old master has a soft spot for kids (i.e. Hinako or Kurumi and Natsuki (I think those are the names for those two girls)).

So far, usable ideas for ghosts in Tokyo have mainly been limited to Mao Mo Lin. If anyone can come up with more, I would appreciate it.

As always, I love constructive criticism. Give me good ideas, help me with the problems in my story, and Help me write it better.


	4. Ghosts of Nerima

Kindred Spirits ½

By Skye Silverwing

Disclaimer: I still don't own it.

Chapter 4: The Ghosts of Nerima

Hikaru Gosunkugi knelt next to a circular symbol drawn on the floor of the old storage room, surrounded by candles of varied colors as he worked to complete his ritual to summon an ally strong enough to defeat Ranma Saotome.

Carefully, he placed the finishing touches on the circle, and then he stepped into his position. Holding aloft a small, ornate box, containing a piece of metal he had bought off the internet that was supposedly a piece of the legendary Excalibur, as his offering, he began the incantation.

"Oh, great spirit, I call you forth to assist me in the smiting of my enemies." He began, "Come to me, Spirit, as I draw you with this item of great value to you! I call upon you to assist me in the defeat of my greatest foe! NOW, COME FORTH!"

There was a bright flash of Green light and an ethereal wind, swirled around the room, extinguishing the candles and leaving the teen in the dark for a few moments before a blue glowing form appeared in front of him.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST!" It declared. "I HAVE POWER OVER ALL THINGS CARDBOARD AND SQUARE!!!"

Gosunkugi threw himself to the ground as a pair of boxes in the corner suddenly flew up off the ground and were thrown at him. As he hit the ground, he held the box in his hand up. "I offer you this token, in exchange for your aide against my foe, Ranma Saotome!" He cried.

The Box Ghost took the box from the boy and looked down at his cowering form. He then opened the box and dumped out the worthless piece of metal. "I accept your tribute!" He said, taking the now empty box. "Show me this Ranma Saotome, that I might show him the power of my Corrugated Cardboard Fury!"

"BEWARE!"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Vlad Masters glared angrily at his Ghostly Pets. "Allow me to understand what you are telling me." He said in a deadly tone. "I sent you to track my weakened clone daughter, and bring me back her remains for study, and you idiots managed to foul it up, how? BY LOOSING THE CLOTH WITH HER SCENT TO A FEEBLE OLD MAN!!!"

The vultures looked ashamed in the moments before Vlad transformed and blasted them out of existence.

The Billionaire Fruitloop stalked back over to his desk. "Wonderful." He said. "Now I have to find someone to hunt Danielle again, and I still have yet to find a way to deal with Daniel, and that pathetic father of his!"

"I suppose I should have expected you to be the type of villain to destroy his followers for failure." Said a voice behind him.

Vlad spun to face the speaker, a short, balding old man, who was idly tossing some kind of ball in his hand. "What!?" Vlad said in shock. "Who are you and how did you get in here?"

Happosai grinned at the ghostly villain. "I am Happosai." He said. "I am the Grandmaster of the Anything Goes school of Martial Arts. I am the one who defeated your birds and followed them back here. I am also the one who has decided that regardless who you are, and who the child is, you cannot be allowed to harm her. She is under my protection now, and I won't let you harm her!" With that, the old man fell into a serious fighting stance.

Vlad chuckled. "Somehow, I think you fail to grasp the seriousness of the situation, Old Man!" he declared arrogantly.

Happosai grinned evilly. "As do you." He replied. "HAPPO DAIKARIN!"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Danielle smiled as her new friends chattered away about friends and school and all the other things that young girls chat about. She was glad that she had to speak very little to encourage them to hold up almost the entire conversation, as her own experiences in those topics were sorely lacking, as Vlad had programmed all her knowledge into her and the closest things she had every had to friends before coming to Japan (outside of Danny and his friends) had been her brothers, who had since dissolved into goo. The thought caused Dani to sigh regretfully, as she had been responsible for the final fate of more than one of them.

Hotaru noticed Dani's sad look. "Are you okay, Dani-chan?" she asked, her face showing much concern, "You look sad."

Dani looked at the dark-haired girl and smiled sadly. "No, I'm fine." She said, "Just thinking about my… brothers. They all died because of my… father."

Across the table Usagi dropped her chopsticks, staring at the girl in horror. "Oh, my!" she said, "He killed them?"

Danny sighed, wishing it was that simple. "More like worked them to death." She said, "We all were born kind of sick. My father never let us rest. Always barking orders and demanding that we clean up his messes, working us to exhaustion. When my brothers died, he just got mad at the rest of us and made us work harder. I got lucky. My… cousin showed up and got me out of there."

"Oh, dear!" Usagi said, "You poor thing! Did your father go to jail?"

Dani shook her head. "No. He has a lot of money, influence, and power, and it seems that until my cousin, no one knew of my existence." She said, "He had all the evidence destroyed, so it would be my word against his, and my word is worth almost nothing. Worse yet, if I called the police, my father would know where I was and would send his goons to bring me back."

Usagi was very concerned now. "Oh, no!" she said, "Is there anything we can do?"

Dani smiled good-naturedly. "No." she said, "I am safe for now. My cousin got me away from him, and I made it to Japan without him noticing. Now I have Ranma and Kasumi to protect me." She gestured toward the kitchen indicating the pair of women she had arrived with.

Hotaru smiled. "That is exactly how I feel about my Haruka-papa and Michiru-mama." She said. "And don't think your father is the only insane maniac in the world either. Mine tried to sacrifice me to a world-eating monster. I had to be saved by the Sailor Senshi."

"Sailor Senshi?" Dani asked. She was about to inquire further when a familiar shiver ran through her body, and a puff of steam drifted from her mouth. "Uh-oh..."

Suddenly sounds of screaming began to drift through the doors of the Nekohatten.

Ranma and Kasumi hurried into the lobby. "What's going on?" Ranma asked, wiping her hands clean with a dishrag.

Usagi looked at Mamoru and the girls and all four of them nodded. "I am not sure, but we are not going to stick around to find out!" She said, "We are getting Chibi-Usa and Hotaru out of here."

They all moved to the door, but Hotaru paused long enough to scribble something down on a piece of paper and hand it to Dani. "Here, Dani, this is my home phone number." She said, "Let's get together again sometime."

With that, the Foursome hurried out into the street.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

As the door shut, Cologne hopped out into the dining room with a glass of steaming water. A moment later, a very male Ranma stood sputtering where the female version had been standing before, with steam rising from his shirt.

The Amazon Matriarch chuckled mischievously. "I know you are not the kind to let innocents come to danger, Little Sister," she said, "and you have always been more powerful in general while in your male form."

Ranma gave the old woman a withering look, but then conceded the point. He began to move toward the door, but was stopped by the old woman's voice once more. "Not you, young lady."

Ranma turned to see Cologne blocking Dani from following him. "The Old Ghoul is right, Danielle." he said in a firm voice, "Whatever is happening could be dangerous, and we have no idea what we are dealing with."

"It's a ghost." Danielle said flatly. "I have a kind of 'ghost sense' that causes me to breath out mist whenever a ghost is near."

Ranma cocked his head. "Oh." He said. "Well it isn't like I haven't dealt with Spirits before."

Cologne raised her head. "Hold a moment, Little Sister." She said, "The Amazon way of battle is not built around brute force, but rather, making use of what you have access to, to the best of your ability. If we are indeed facing an evil spirit, I believe I have just the thing."

She turned to hurry into her kitchen, leaving Ranma, Kasumi and Danielle in the front. Soon, sounds of battle sprang up outside.

Ranma growled, never having been one to miss a fight, especially with innocents in danger. "No time!" he said, "I will slow down whatever is happening out there. You girls stay here, and let the Old Ghoul know I am running distraction for her."

With that he turned and dashed out the door.

Kasumi sighed. "Well Dani, I guess that leaves just you and me." She said. "Dani?"

Turning, she noticed, much to her dismay, the younger girl was already gone.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Happosai learned very quickly that the evil Halfa's nearly endless range of abilities made him an extremely dangerous opponent.

Happosai's initial attack sent the Halfa hurtling toward him, phasing both of them through the floor of Vlad's office and down into what seemed to be a gymnasium or training room of some kind.

Vlad immediately charged at the human, lashing out with a high speed punch. The old Master caught the strike with his pipe and diverted the villain's energy, pitching Vlad into the air. Vlad barely managed to cushion the impact against the ceiling with is fight powers.

"You are better than I thought, Old Man, but you have no chance against me!" He said, splitting into five of himself. "I am just too powerful for a human to have a chance."

Happosai grinned. "You'll forgive me if I have to see for myself." He said, splitting himself as well using a technique he had stolen from the Amazons. The five Happosais engaged the five Vlads in a grand melee, each copy of the Old Master hopping around with its own timing, moving the copies apart, forcing Vlad's still mostly singular consciousness to divide in a manner that was proving taxing on the younger man.

An axe kick connected and a copy of Vlad vanished in a puff of smoke, freeing a copy of Happosai to double-team another copy of the Villain.

Vlad realized that he was beginning to lose this fight. Thinking quickly, the Evil Mastermind let the clones go, bringing his focus back to himself. Now facing five copies of the Old Pervert, he lashed out with his ecto-beams, striking two copies of the Aged Martial-Artist. As expected, the two copies poofed out of existence, and Vlad was rewarded by the sound of the Old Fool howling in pain and the rest of his copies vanishing as well.

Happosai was not surprised to find that Vlad had a ranged energy attack, but what he had not expected was that the beams were composed entirely of death chi. The energy in those beams reacted with the store of life chi that the Old Man had been using to maintain his life-force over the past four hundred years. It had driven the energy out of the copies and destroyed them, funneling back into himself. The pain was horrible and nearly wiped out his entire store of energy.

There was only one way the venerable martial artist could escape with his life. He reached into his pocket of Stuff Space, glad that he had tied off that flow of chi long ago, and pulled out his biggest Happo Daikaran.

Vlad stared in surprise at the sudden appearance of the six-foot diameter bomb. "WHAT?!?" he cried, "Are you insane?! That blast will be large enough to level this entire building!"

Happosai grinned weakly. "That… Would be the point…" he said. "Practitioners of Anything Goes never lose."

With a sigh, and a quick flick of chi, Happosai lit the fuse.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Usagi, Mamoru, Chibi-Usa, and Hotaru dashed out into the street, quickly spotting the source of the commotion.

A short distance away, a strange blue glowing humanoid creature was hovering over the terrified pedestrians, attacking them with levitating boxes, and laughing maniacally. The cardboard boxes, and their contents, were flying every which way, forcing the civilians to dodge frantically for their lives.

"What is that guy?" Usagi asked, ducking into an alley and pulling out her communicator, "Girls! We've got trouble in the Nerima Ward! A monster using tele… tele… Mind powers to throw stuff at people!"

"No Problem, Usagi." Makoto's voice came through. "Rei and I are on our way."

"We are on our way, too!" Announced Minako. "Ami says we are only a few minutes away."

"Be careful, Girls." Setsuna said, "The Time Gates are showing nothing of this battle, so there is a good chance our new enemy is involved. I will monitor things from here, and back you up if necessary."

"I understand." Usagi said, "Let's take this thing down before it gets any worse!"

"MOON ETERNAL POWER, MAKE-UP!"

"SATURN CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE-UP!"

"MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE-UP!"

While the three girls performed their transformations, Mamoru merely reached into his jacket, pulling out a rose, and transformed as well.

In moments, the Sailor Moon, Sailor Saturn, Sailor Chibi-Moon, and Tuxedo Kamen exited the alley, moving to intercept the hovering blue creature at the nearby preschool where it was tormenting a group of small, defenseless children and using its powers to steal their bento boxes.

Incensed at the theft of the innocent children's lunches, Sailor Moon stepped forward and put on her speech-making face. "STOP RIGHT THERE!" she shouted, causing all eyes to turn to her. "Lunchtime is one of the best parts of the day, and growing children need their food! How dare you attempt to steal these children's lunches for your nefarious purposes! I am Sailor Moon; I right wrongs, and triumph over evil. In the Name of the Moon, I will punish you, and get those Bentos back!"

The Spirit looked at her and sneered. "I do not take orders from you, foolish human!" It said, "I am the BOX GHOST: MASTER OF ALL CUBICALLY SHAPED CONTAINERS! I am liberating my cardboard minions from their miniature human captors!"

Chibi-Usa snickered. "Cardboard Boxes are his minions?" she said, "Lamest. Villain. Ever."

The Box Ghost glared at the youngest Senshi. "HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE BOX GHOST!" It shouted. "FEEL THE WRATH OF MY CUBE-SHAPED FURY!"

He used his powers to lift a nearby playground box, full of Balls and other playground toys, and hurled it at Sailor Chibi-Moon.

Saturn instantly leapt to her friend's aide, leveling her Silence Glaive on the projectile.

"SILENCE GLAIVE SURPRISE!"

A massive ball of energy leapt from the end of the Senshi of Destruction's wicked polearm, intercepting the box in mid-air with a flash, sending the contents raining down on the Senshi.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

For the first time in a long time, the Box Ghost felt fear. The attack that the human had hurled had had the power to annihilate him several times over. This was not Danny's "Catch and Release" ghost hunting. This was facing pure destruction: death, even in spirit.

He pulled back in terror, desperately seeking an escape route as the girls began to advance on him again. Suddenly he was hit solidly by an axe-kick that drove him face first into the ground. It hurt, since he did not have time to become intangible. He pushed himself to his feet, stumbling backward, grasping at his intangibility to save him from the relentless pounding that his newest foe, a pigtailed boy, who, he realized dimly, was probably that "Ranma Saotome" the Summoner had wanted him to destroy.

"MOKO TAKABISHA!" the boy shouted, gathering a ball of energy in his hands and throwing it at him. The energy stung with counter-polarity as it passed through his incorporeal form. The boy was attacking him with life energy! The Box Ghost had once heard Spectra theorizing that life energy and ecto-energy, being polar opposites, could negate each other if used in high enough quantities. He guessed that since he was made of Ectoplasm it could drain off his power and even destroy him if it hit him directly.

He struggled to escape, now from both the skirted females and the pigtailed boy. He flew into an alley when he spotted a glimmer of hope at the other end. "THE HALFA!" he cried, flying as quickly as he could to the black and white figure, not noticing the gasps of the girls behind him. "PLEASE, HALFA! HELP ME! DON'T LET THEM DESTROY ME!"

He realized at the last moment that this was not the Halfa he knew. This female halfa looked at him with a level of terror that he had always hoped to see in the eyes of her male counterpart. As gratifying as the feeling was, however, fear was not what he needed. With one last chance, he leapt through the wall beside her.

Inside, he found himself face-to face with a small old woman. Somehow, her smile scared him even more than the others had. "So, you are the malevolent spirit." She said, pulling something from behind her back.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Sailor Moon and her allies stared in shock as the mysterious pigtailed martial artist fired some sort of energy attack at their ghostly enemy. True, Usagi had heard the rumors about the powerful martial artists in Nerima, but she had dismissed them as an urban legend. After all, there was no way that ordinary humans could become powerful enough to level a whole city block in minutes without magic. But then, the evidence was there, standing in front of them, having wasted a nearby brick wall with that blast.

Sailor Moon saw the fear on the ghost's face as it turned to flee down a nearby alley, and decided that it was the Senshi's job to deal with these kind of things, not that of some muscle-bound human. She turned to chase it and motioned to Chibi-Moon and Saturn to follow as Tuxedo Kamen brought up the rear. Moon leveled her Moon Staff to blast the fleeing specter with purifying magic.

Then she saw what the ghost was running to.

A white haired girl with glowing green eyes, not much older in appearance than Chibi-Usa, crouched behind some trashcans half way down the alley, apparently observing the fight.

"THE HALFA!" the ghost cried, confirming her fears.

The look on the girl's face turned to surprise and fear as she apparently realized that her cover was blown. The blue ghost took a moment to beg for assistance before diving through the wall.

Moon looked at Saturn, who pointed her glaive at the Ghost girl, intending to end this quickly. The Future Queen felt a little bad about having to destroy someone who looked so young, but as she learned from the Amazoness Quartet, looking young did not mean that an enemy was not a threat. Still, she waved off the Senshi of Silence and pointed her own staff at the girl, as it would purify the girl, hopefully without destroying her.

"MOON SILVER CRYSTAL-"

She cut off abruptly as a strong hand took a hold of her weapon and wrenched it skyward, dissipating the energy. She barely had time to register the martial artist who had scared off the Box Ghost before she felt a savage kick to her chest, sending her flying backward across the street.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma, unlike Sailor Moon, had been fully aware of the other's existence for some time. It was hard, after all, to miss the various enemies the Senshi had saved the world from on several occasions. They even attacked Nerima from time to time, an enjoyable occurrence, as it was one of the rare times when the Martial Artists would work together and fight without holding back.

Ranma respected the Senshi enough to learn about them: their styles, their leadership, their attitudes and their powers. There was one thing in all that he had learned that seemed to apply to this situation more than anything else. Sailor Moon was the Finisher. The Leader of the Senshi was always the one who stepped up to blast the Enemy to dust, whether it was a Youma, Daimon, Cardian, Droid, or whatever, her attack was the one that took it out.

This fact loomed large in Ranma's mind when he spotted the Lunar Senshi pointing her weapon at the girl he had sworn to protect.

Without missing a beat, Ranma wrenched the weapon from the hands of the self proclaimed "Guardian of Love and Justice", and kicked her hard in the chest, sending her hurtling across the street.

A moment later, he dodged a rose thrown by the guy in the Tux and ducked under a slash by Saturn's Glaive. The surprise was a stream of tiny pink hearts launched by the Younger Sailor Moon. They hit Ranma right in the face. They did not really hurt him, but they stung a little, and were really annoying. Ranma caught Saturn's Polearm just below the blade, and used it as a lever to pitch the surprised Senshi at her friend, ending the annoying attack.

Two more Roses struck the ground at his feet, drawing his attention back to Tux Boy, who was sniping at him from a nearby tree branch. Ranma leapt at the overdressed fool, caught a hold of his cape and kicked off of the tree, spinning around him and wrapping him in his own cape before delivering a swift kick that sent him to the ground in an unmoving heap.

During the combat, Ranma was vaguely aware of seeing Danielle flee. He hoped she had managed to get someplace safe, but he had no time to dwell on it, as the crack of thunder, a burst of flame, a blast of energy and the appearance of a rolling fog bank announced the arrivals of the rest of the Inner Senshi.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Dani ran. Far and fast. Blinded by tears, she fled as far and as fast as she could.

She had recognized the Box Ghost, as Vlad had drilled them all in the abilities and powers of the other denizens of the Ghost Zone, just in case they were ever called upon to ally with, fight against them.

In her mind, the presence of a ghost that had never appeared outside of Amity without reason proved that Vlad had found her. She could not endanger Ranma and Kasumi like that.

So she ran. She ran until she could not run anymore, then, she phased through a wall and collapsed in a crumpled heap, sobbing. Feeling the chill again, she opened her eyes, ready to let whatever spirit had come to finish her do it.

The first thing she noticed was that she was in some kind of dilapidated old temple, complete with an annex containing a large bell that she imagined was once used to ring in the Japanese New Year.

She then noticed a large ball-bell hovering in mid air. As she stared, the head of a large Ghostly cat appeared, grinning like its Wonderland relative. "Hello, little one, how can I help you?" it said. "I am Mao Mo Lin. Would you like to come inside?"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi heard a cry from the kitchen and hurried to see what was going on. She passed through the curtain separating the rooms, just in time to see Cologne using some kind of thermos to fire a beam of blue energy and draw a blue man, whom she assumed to be a ghost, into it.

"Oh, my!" she said, "Honored Grandmother, what is that?"

The old woman grinned, holding up the Thermos. "This is one of several ancient artifacts that have been passed down in my family for several generations since a mysterious traveler gifted them to us long ago, saying we would one day need them." She said, "I believe that that day has come." She handed Kasumi a gun-shaped device.

"Oh, my!" Kasumi said, looking at the Fenton Ghost Peeler in her hand, "I wonder how such advanced technology could have appeared such a long time ago?"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

In the Ghost Zone, Clockwork smirked enigmatically.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

A.N. Alright loyal readers, next Chapter, We learn Happosai's fate, have a battle between Ranma and the Senshi, and deal with the fact that Dani has fallen into the clutches of Mao Mo Lin. My questions for you are simple:

First, should Happosai Survive? Vlad's attack messed up his store of energy, and given the selection of pretty girls in Amity, I would give him all of an hour, tops, before his attempts to recharge draw the ire of the other resident Halfa, the resulting fight may kill him.

Second, it being a foregone conclusion that Ranma will survive the fight with the Senshi, I want to know how you want it to end. I see four probable endings for the fight. First, Ranma wins, and walks away leaving unconscious Senshi sprawled behind him. Second, Ranma manages to distract the Senshi long enough to pull a Saotome Fast-Break. Third, Senshi win for now, Ranma gets blasted into L.E.O. Fourth, Ranma gets help long enough to retreat. What do you think should happen?

Finally, I will admit, the whole Mao Mo Lin thing is up in the air. My ideas include "Mao Mo Lin becoming Dani's friend" or "Ryoga rescues Dani from having to marry Mao Mo Lin" or "Ranma must overcome the Neko-Ken in order to save Dani from Mao Mo Lin" or "Kasumi has to save Dani from Mao Mo Lin by using the Fenton Ghost Peeler". I can't decide, so I need reader feedback on this one, and more ideas would be appreciated as well.

As always, I like constructive criticism and ideas.


	5. Of Senshi and Spirits

Kindred Spirits ½

By Skye Silverwing

Disclaimer: I still don't own it.

Chapter 5: Of Senshi and Spirits

A thick plume of Black Smoke marred the morning sky over Amity Park. There were whispers about a terrorist attack on the home of the Town's enigmatic mayor, Vlad Masters, as the Fire Department and emergency crews rushed to the burning ruin that was once Masters's estate.

It took only a few minutes for the administrators of nearby Casper High to decide that the School itself was a likely next target, and dismiss the students to the relative Safety of their own homes in case the culprits were still at large.

Daniel Fenton and his friends, Tucker Foley and Samantha Manson, walked out of the school building, glad for the respite from standardized education, even if the reason for it was somewhat dire.

Tucker looked at his Friends as they walked in the direction of Danny's home. "So Danny," he said, "Are you going to go investigate this so-called terrorist attack at Vlad's place?"

Danny shook his head. "No way." He said, "It's probably just some plan of Vlad's to trick me into a trap or something."

Sam nodded. "Yeah." She said, "And if Vlad is in trouble, that suits me just fine."

As they walked around the corner, a small scorched figure stumbled out from a nearby alleyway behind them.

Happosai was in bad shape. The energy stores he relied on to sustain his long life had been depleted in moments during his battle with Vlad. It had been only by luck that he had survived the blast of his own final attack, the shockwave having hurled him through the roof before the flames could inflict more damage on his battle-hardened body. Still, his injuries and burns dragged at him, pulling him down.

He leaned against the wall, closing his eyes to extend his senses. He was not fool enough to think that Vlad had been destroyed in the blast. Such Villains never fall so easily. He needed to ensure that if the evil halfa was up and around, he could not send his minions to capture him.

Suddenly, a sound reached the old man's ears.

"So I was, like, in Van Mare, that new posh store in the Mall when I found the cutest baby T!" Paulina told Star and Valarie, "It is just perfect for me and only five hundred dollars!"

The lovely Hispanic teen and her two equally lovely friends passed by the old master, apparently on their way to the Mall, oblivious to his presence.

A smile spread its way across his face. "Sweeto." He whispered. "Time for a recharge."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma cursed whatever Kami had gotten him into this mess.

The fog, in spite of effectively obscuring his vision, did not seem to hinder the attacking Senshi in the slightest. It was only his finely-tuned chi senses and danger sense that keep him from being struck by the attacks of Sailors Mars, Venus, and Jupiter.

He was dancing around, trying to avoid a "Crescent Beam Shower" Attack from Venus when Jupiter engaged him in hand-to-hand combat. A few moments later, Ranma's danger sense flared, and he was forced to jump vertically to avoid Mars's "Flame Sniper".

Through it all, he heard a voice. "Princess! Are you alright? The voice, which had to be Mercury's, asked.

"I am okay," Sailor Moon's voice responded, "but he took my Eternal Tier!"

Ranma smirked, recalling tucking Moon's weapon up his sleeve using Mousse's hidden weapons technique when he had taken it from her earlier. The sound of a skirt rustling broke him from his reverie, giving him just enough warning to dodge Mars as she lunged in to attack, apparently to give Jupiter and Venus a clear shot at him.

He was well aware that he was not going to win this fight. Untrained in the art as they were, their magic gave them a strong resistance to physical damage, and truth be told, in spite of their attempt to harm Dani, he did not want to harm them. His attempts to incapacitate them without injuring them, however, were rendered in effective by the magic.

This was proven when a stream of pink hearts erupted unexpectedly from behind the bank of fog, striking him in the face, stinging slightly. As he used his hand to deflect it, his danger senses screamed to life, and he bent over backwards, narrowly avoiding being impaled by Saturn's weapon. Once again he caught the Glaive just below the blade, and once again he whipped the girl around and used her as a weapon to stop her friend with the annoying attack his danger sense would not bother with. This time, however, he did not let go of her weapon, choosing instead to store it with Moon's.

"Oh, My God!" Mars's voice cried, "He's got the Silence Glaive."

"Girls!" Mercury said, "Try attacking him more than one at a time!"

The Pigtailed Martial Artist grimaced as both Jupiter and Mars attacked him simultaneously. Pushing his skills to the limit, he defended against them both, becoming aware of how much their strength and speed was likely augmented by the magic as well. He began to slip into a Tendo school form he had been learning over time, called the "Dance of the Thousand Fists". It was an Anything Goes form designed to fight multiple opponents, using their strikes and defenses against each other.

He thanked the Kami for the tendency these girls showed to call out the names of their attacks, giving away their position a split second before firing. He did a quick back flip to avoid Venus's Love-Me Chain, as well as Moon's Tiara, breaking away from the Senshi in doing so. Then he drove a single finger into the concrete below his feet use the Bakusai Tenkestu to cause the very ground below his feet to erupt in shrapnel, creating a smoke screen. He decided that he had wasted enough time fighting these girls. He dropped into the Umi senken, fading from sight, intending to slip away unseen.

"Where did he go?" he heard Moon ask, probably looking around, confused. "He disappeared!"

Ranma began to slip away under the cover of Umi as the fog around them began to fade. He saw the Senshi fade into view one by one, and then he noticed Mercury typing furiously into some sort of handheld device. She then looked up directly at him.

Mercury pointed. "He is there!" she cried, "He just has his energy inverted in such a manner that it hides the recognition tags from our senses! SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!"

Ranma flung himself to the side, hard and fast, losing his Umi as he dove, tucked and rolled clear of the attack. As he regained his feet, he found himself surrounded by the Seven Senshi.

Sailor Moon glared at him. "Enough of this!" she demanded, "Give us our weapons back!"

Ranma glared right back. "No." he said flatly. "You tried to blast that little girl. Even if you were shooting at the ghost, you were still putting the girl in danger."

Sailor Moon had the good grace to look slightly embarrassed. "The girl was our enemy," She said, "an evil being that is trying to destroy our perfect future."

Ranma glared at the girl in obvious distain. "The girl did nothing." He said coldly. "As a martial artist, it is my duty to protect the weak and the defenseless. I will not let you hurt that girl. Not now, NOT EVER."

He shifted into a defensive stance and waited for the fight to resume. Suddenly his danger sense screamed to life and acting on pure instinct, he moved to avoid what was coming.

"WORLD SHAKING!"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi exited the Nekohatten via the back exit, following the dots blinking on the screen of the weapon she held in her hand. She had to find Dani. As she moved out of the alley, she noticed Ranma's fight and vaguely wondered why he was fighting the Sailor Senshi. She guessed that the Senshi had started the fight, as it was not something Ranma was prone to do. In any case, the pigtailed boy seemed to be tied up, so it was up to her to locate Dani and make sure she was safe.

As she turned to follow the dots, a bird suddenly took flight in front of her, startling her and causing her to pull the trigger on the gun. In a matter of moments, with a series of clicks, the gun produced a full set of some kind of body armor. Kasumi looked herself over; she was a bit surprised by the weapon's shift, the dots she had been following now appeared on the armor's Heads-Up Display.

Kasumi smiled, pleased with this development, and moved to Test the capabilities of the armor, leaping to the nearest rooftop. She then began roof hopping. She felt like Dani was in danger, and for once, she had the power to save her.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Valarie Grey rolled her eyes at Paulina's shallow manner, as the trio made their way toward the Mall. She figured she was lucky that in spite of all the trouble that that ghost kid, Phantom, had caused her, she was still allowed to be seen with the "Princess of Casper High", especially given Paulina's feelings for Phantom. Still, she was kind of wishing the shallow girl had not roped her into this shopping trip, which would have freed up her afternoon for investigating the attack on her former benefactor.

She was looking longingly at the smoke still darkening the sky when Paulina cried out. "Oh, Eww!" The Popular girl cried, "What is this thing? Eww… It's all old and wrinkly, and it smells like the school cafeteria on meatloaf day. Get it off of me!"

She looked to see what the cause of the girl's distress was, only to spot what appeared to be some sort of a shrunken, wrinkled, old gnome latched on to the popular girl's bosom, actively groping the girl. "Hot'cha." It said, causing Valarie to giggle in spite of herself as Star lashed out against the thing with her purse.

There was a quick blur as the situation suddenly reversed itself, the Satellite now being assaulted as the popular girl tried to remove the attacker from her. Valarie realized with a small burst of feminine outrage that she was probably going to be the next one on the molester's target list. She set herself and, a moment later, the gnome released Star and blurred in her direction.

At just the right moment, Valarie unleashed a vicious snap-kick at the blur, only to have the thing tap off her leg and land on top of it. Her eyes widened as she found herself staring at a shrunken old man balancing easily on her extended leg. "Pretty good, m'dear." He said, "You have some potential. Sadly, I am not accepting new students at this moment."

With that, the diminutive old man hopped off of her leg, running a hand over the inner side of her upper high eliciting an indignant shriek from the girl. He then hopped up onto a nearby traffic sign, and then produced, with a flourish, two bras and one pair of panties. "Thank-you ladies," he said, "It wasn't much of a haul, but it is a start."

Paulina and Star gave indignant shrieks as they recognized their own designer bras. Valarie stared in confusion until a slight breeze ruffled her skirt, the resulting chill allowing her to realize where the panties had come from.

Happosai smirked and bounded away in search of more silky darlings, leaving the three teens sputtering in feminine outrage behind him.

It took a few moments, but the sight of their assailant attempting to make his getaway with their under things spurred Paulina and Star into action, and they charged off, shouting obscenities at the old man as they chased him.

Forgotten, Valarie shifted into the alley – slowly as to not flare her skirt – and activated her battle suit. As the form-fitting outfit encased her body, she felt its power and security covering her. She would show that old freak why no one messed with the Red Huntress.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Dani felt a little uncomfortable with the way this Cat-Ghost was fussing over her. She watched as he drifted here and there, seeking to fulfill her every need, all the while asking questions about who she was and what she had been doing there. It was the wide-eyed stare he gazed upon her with and the grin he had when he believed she was not looking that unnerved her so.

It seemed that he was a local spirit, the corruption of the spirit of a cat that once belonged to a Priest who had died a lonely old bachelor in China. When the man had died, his cat was soon to follow, though Mau Mo-Lin remained Earth-bound, tied to a pair of bells its favored toys in life.

According to the knowledge of ghost psychology her father had imparted her with, Dani knew an Earth-bound Spirit only remains Earth-bound for one of two reasons: Either it was by nature incapable of crossing over into the Ghost Zone on its own (which was the case for herself, Danny, and any spirits tied to their corporeal shells), or it had an obsession; a reason why it could not leave yet. In many cases, it was as simple as a failure in life that could not be fulfilled in death. But in some it was a simple emotional trigger.

Dani suspected this to be the case with her host. He appeared to be seeking little more than companionship, and she supposed that if that was all he needed to move on, she could provide it. Still, from how he spoke, it didn't seem like he had been wanting for attention in life. There was a kind of joy in the huge cat's features when he spoke of his life, almost as if his master had cared for him until the master died. It did not add up.

Dani resolved to figure her new friend out, unaware that the large ghostly cat was even then setting up a ritual for a spirit wedding.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Mercury heard Uranus call her attack, and time seemed to slow to a crawl as she realized that if the boy jumped out of the way, the attack would hit her. Without the necessary reflexes to get out of the way, she could not hope avoid it.

It took her a split second to realize that the Martial Artist was not leaping out of the way, but rather, was lunging toward her. He slammed into her slight frame with all the force of an NFL Quarterback, driving them both to the ground as the attack flew over their heads.

The other girls did not react well to the apparent attack on their friend. "MERCURY!" Moon shouted, and the battle was rejoined.

Without much loss of momentum, the black haired boy rolled off of the surprised Senshi with an apologetic look on his face, before regaining his feet and parrying an attack by Sailor Jupiter.

He hopped over the brunette's head and unleashed a kick at Sailor Uranus, who responded immediately by pulling her Sword and Unleashing a number of vacuum blades from it with the "SPACE SWORD BLASTER!" attack, barely missing, and creating a small cut along the boy's cheek.

Mercury tried weakly to protest the attack on the boy who had just saved her, but her friends were not paying attention anymore.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi ran, clad in the strange metal armor that had come from the weapon in her hand. It was truly amazing to be able to leap along rooftops as Ranma did. It was no wonder that the pigtailed boy did it so much.

The dots indicated on her heads up display had not moved much recently, and was not really even sure that one of them indicated Dani, and even if it did, what did the other dot indicate?

She finally reached the Temple, and was pleasantly surprised to see the heads up display shift to a top-down view, showing the floor plan of the building and the locations of the two signals within. She firmed her grip on the gun part and prepared to go in.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma wiped the blood from his cheek and frowned at it. Behind him, a telephone pole collapsed from the damage the vacuum blades had caused. This was going to prove even more difficult than he thought. If the Senshi were going to be this dangerous and reckless, he needed to end this fight before they could hurt anyone else. Glancing around, he realized that the fight had moved a bit, and his current location gave him an idea.

"Moko Takabisha!" he shouted, avoiding an attack from Mars and delivering his Ki blast directly into the face of Sailor Neptune, catapulting her backward and into a tree, shattering its trunk.

The angry yelp from Uranus showed that his guess at the connection between the two was correct. The Blonde moved to help the Teal-haired girl, and Jupiter charged in to attack Ranma.

Ranma grinned and caught Jupiter's wrist. "Swing your partner do-si-do!" He said, imitating a dance he saw during his training in the American Mid-West, then released her at the right moment to send her into Venus, Mars and Moon, sending them all to the ground in a tangle of arms, legs and short skirts. Then, he turned on his heel and bolted down the street, rounding the nearest bend as quickly as he could, kicking a trashcan to trip up Saturn and Chibi Moon.

Once there, he darted into the nearest door.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Happosai bounded along, searching for more silky darlings to add to his emergency collection, as well as add to his still-rather depleted stores of energy. Amity had its fair share of lovely ladies, some of which had a level of Spirit that made drawing off the excess chi a breeze.

He dropped down behind a particularly perky Red-head wearing a sensible black blouse and jeans and a blue headband that brought out her eyes. This one's chi made his senses tingle from ten feet away. Using stealth, the Ancient Master drifted closer and closer to his target, moving from shadow to shadow, moments from taking her unawares.

Suddenly, a blast of energy struck the wall in front of him. "Leave her alone, you dried up old pervert!" Shouted a woman in a skin-tight black-and-red battle suit as she arrived on what appeared to be a flying two-pronged surf board. "You will not be allowed to touch another woman as long as I am around!"

Happosai's red-haired target whirled around, and cried out in alarm. "What the Hell is that thing?" she cried, jumping behind the Crimson and Black clad heroine. "Is it a ghost?"

The Red Huntress growled. "No, it is worse." She said darkly, "It is a perverted monster that gropes women and steals their underwear."

Happosai shot the flying girl a wry grin. "You know, if I wasn't in such a rush to regain my strength, I would stick around and play with you for a bit. Sadly," he said, hopping up and using the girl's head as a springboard to vault over the edge of a nearby building, "I have other things to do."

The Huntress took off after him at high speed, leaving the other girl alone in the alley. Alone, that is, until the Old Master emerged from the Shadows, reminding himself to thank Cologne at some point for "donating" the Splitting Cat Hairs technique to the Anything Goes School all those years ago.

A perverted grin spread its way across the Old Lecher's face. "Now, my dear," he said as he began to advance on her. "Where were we?"

The girl screamed.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ukyo Kuonji, Okonomiyaki Chef Extraordinaire, wiped down her grill as her customers happily ate the food she had prepared for them. She was just thinking that she wished her fiancé, Ranma Saotome, would pay her a visit today when the Pigtailed martial artist suddenly burst through the front door of her restaurant, flashing "I need to ditch pursuers" in the hand signs they had developed as kids.

The Chef nodded and slid the boy a glass of water for a quick gender change and nodded to a secluded corner booth, obscured by a large plant, she then fired off a command with a similar set of hand signs, dispatching her cross-dressing waitress and ninja, Konatsu, to quietly request discretion from her customers. It was only a few moments after the completion of this task that the door opened again and more than a few sets of curious eyes turned to see who was chasing Nerima's best Martial Artist today.

Ukyo had to admit, she was a bit star-struck at first when Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune charged in, scanning the room with their eyes. They finally fixed their gaze on her and Uranus stepped up to the counter. "Hey," she said, "Did a pigtailed boy with a red Chinese shirt and black pants come in here?"

Ukyo was brought out of her starry-eyed state by mention of her fiancé. She adopted a loose, casual stance and leaned on the counter. "Nope." She said, "No one has come in here in some time. Can I interest you in something to eat?"

A starry-eyed Sailor Moon poked her head in. "Eat?" she said, staring at the grill, "Oooo… Okonomiyaki! I love Okonomiyaki!"

Sailor Mars appeared and grabbed Moon by the arm. "We don't have time for this." She said, "And didn't you just eat, anyway?"

Sailor Moon looked like she was about to start wailing when Ukyo cut in. "Not to worry, Sugar," she said companionably, "For my favorite heroine, I will throw one in a to-go box, on the house."

Sailor Moon immediately brightened, and she stood next to the counter, drooling slightly until the snack was ready. Mars, Uranus and Neptune waited impatiently until the snack was in Moon's hand. Moon giggled and happily accepted the treat and Mars rolled her eyes and grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the store, and the others followed. "There." Mars said, "You got your snack. Now come on! We need to catch that guy before he gets away!"

They hurried on down the street in search of their quarry, leaving the occupants of Ucchan's Restaurant to ponder what it was all about as the door slid shut.

After a few moments, Ukyo turned an accusing glare on her fiancé. "Ranchan, what was that all about?" she asked, planting her fists on her hips.

The now red-headed martial artist had the good grace to look embarrassed. "I am afraid I don't have any time to explain right now." She said, "I have to go make sure Dani is alright."

Ukyo cocked her head. "Dani?" she asked, "Is she some new fiancée?"

Ranma sighed. "I can't explain right now," she said, heading for the door. "There isn't time."

Ukyo growled. "Oh, no you don't." she said, hopping over the counter. "If it is that important, I am coming with you and you can explain on the way. Konatsu! Close up shop and follow when you can."

Ranma nodded, and the pair of them hurried out the door.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Mau Mo Lin smiled happily at his new fiancé. Of course, he had not actually told her about the magic on this place that would allow him to keep her here. It was initially meant for the other love of his life, Xian-Pu of the Amazons, but he was certain it would work just as effectively on Danielle. It was just a matter of time until…

The East Wall exploded suddenly. "WHERE THE HELL AM I NOW!"

Mau Mo Lin stared in surprise at the young man wearing a black-and-yellow bandana who had just destroyed the five hundred year old wall. The ghost cat knew that no one ever came to this old temple, so he naturally came to the only conclusion that his obsession would allow.

The feline spirit expanded to his largest possible size and issued a low, warning growl. "Mrrrrooww… You must be here to take away myai bride!" He challenged, "She is myaine! I will not allooow you to take her from meee!"

He suddenly became aware of Danielle's eyes upon him. "Marriage?" She said in surprise, "I never agreed to that!"

The huge cat turned to look at the girl, a slightly maniacal glint in his eye. "Fortunately, darling, you don't have to." He said, "All I have to do is keep you here long enough for the binding spell of this temple to work its magic, and you will never be able to leave!"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Danny, Sam and Tucker were hanging out in the park near the Fentonworks, Danny's home. They were discussing the trivial matters all teenagers do: Friends, Music, Fun, Ghost hunting. Well, maybe not _all_ teenagers.

Tucker was fiddling with his PDA, as usual, while Danny and Sam were just chatting, enjoying each other's company. Danny was trying very hard to studiously ignore the black cloud of smoke still staining the afternoon sky. Sam and Tucker ignored it as well. Vlad was no friend of theirs, and they were far better off if he did end up buried in the rubble of his manner.

There was, however, the problem of doing the right thing. After all, that is what heroes do, right?

Sam uttered a deep sigh and was about to bring up the subject again when a scream shattered the mid-afternoon calm.

All three teens leapt to their feet, but it was Danny who first recognized the scream. "Jazz!" He shouted, even as a pair of concentric rings appeared at his waist and moved to either end of his body, shifting his form to that of his superhero alter-ego, Danny Phantom. "Don't worry Jazz, I'm coming!" He shouted, taking to the sky at top speed to rescue his endangered sister, Jasmine, and leaving his friends behind to catch up.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ryoga Hibiki was lost. It was a state he constantly found himself in, though, so he wasn't concerned. He knew that if he kept walking, eventually he would find himself where he needed to be. It can, however, get very frustrating to know that it will take you months to reach a place that others could get to in minutes. "CURSE YOU RANMA!" he shouted, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

It wasn't, of course, but Ryoga's driving hatred of Ranma Saotome was one thing that managed to pull him back to familiar surroundings quicker than anything else, and that was something he needed right now, as he believed himself to be somewhere between the forests East of Manhattan and the vast Himalayan Deserts.

Suddenly, he looked ahead of him and there was a wall. Such a barrier was nothing to Ryoga Hibiki, and he charged through it in a massive shower of rocky debris, shouting his trademark "WHERE THE HELL AM I NOW?" as he did. On the other side, he realized himself to be on the land of an old, dilapidated Shinto Temple. Looking around, he saw a familiar eight-foot-tall monster cat growling at him.

Mau Mo Lin growled threateningly. "Mrrrrooww… You must be here to take away myai bride!" He challenged, "She is myaine! I will not allooow you to take her from meee!"

It was then that Ryoga spotted the child- a girl no older than eight. With a sudden burst of outrage, he realized that this girl must be the Spirit Cat's newest target and victim.

The girl seemed taken aback by the ghost's statement. "Marriage?" She said in surprise, "I never agreed to that!"

The over-sized feline smiled evilly at her. "Fortunately, darling, you don't have to." He said, "All I have to do is keep you here long enough for the binding spell of this temple to work its magic, and you will never be able to leave!" With that, he produced an over-sized bird cage and began to advance on the child.

Ryoga had seen enough. With a mighty heave, he pitched the two-ton umbrella that his style taught him to carry and wield in training and combat at the back of the ghost cat's head. The impact sent the cat toppling over, crushing the cage and a decent section of wall. "Hey, you ugly cat thing!" he shouted, "I remember you. You are the cat ghost that preys on women, seeking to force one into marriage with you. Leave the girl alone. I am not going to let you succeed in taking her."

Mau Mo Lin pulled himself from the wrecked wall, and glared at Ryoga, his visage becoming steadily more monstrous. "Grrr…" he growled, "You DARE to challenge MEEE? I will DESTROY you!"

Ryoga smiled grimly. "Bring it on, you fish-breathed FREAK!"

The two charged at each other and the battle began.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi reached the top of the wall and stopped at the sight of a familiar bandanna-wearing martial artist battling it out with the giant ghost cat that had caused such trouble in the Tendo household a few months earlier. They were dancing back and forth with a dizzying array of attacks that reminded armored housewife just how outclassed she was, even with her armor.

To one side, Kasumi spotted Dani, hiding behind a tree that had clearly not seen much in the way of gardening in some time. The girl was obviously trying to transform into her ghostly form, but the rings were not forming correctly.

Kasumi watched the huge white cat and the Lost Boy as they battled, and soon realized that Ryoga was almost certainly fighting to keep the cat away from Dani. He kept glancing at the girl to make sure she was not caught in the collateral damage. The distraction, however, was causing the Lost Boy to fight at a disadvantage, and one that the Monster Cat was capitalizing on.

Nodding to herself, Kasumi decided that she had had enough of being on the sidelines. Raising her weapon, she leveled it on the ghost and opened fire.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Jasmine Fenton screamed as the tiny, balding, little man lunged at her. She stumbled backward away from him, instinctively falling back on some of the self-defense training her mother had given her, falling backward into a rolling kick just as the old man was about to hit her, using his own momentum to propel him over her and into the side of a nearby trash can.

Though he got up unscathed, the old man seemed confused. "That was…?" he said, but he cut off suddenly and looked to the sky, as if he heard or felt something. A moment later, Jazz saw what had gotten his attention.

Danny Phantom, glowing with his green ectoplasmic powers, appeared over the top of the building. "HEY!" he shouted, "LEAVE HER ALONE!"

The old man set his stance, glaring at the ghost boy.

Danny landed in front of his sister placing himself between her and her would-be attacker. "You okay?" he asked.

Jazz nodded. "Yeah," she replied, "this ghost wasn't able to do anything to me before you got here."

Danny glanced at her. "He isn't a ghost." he said, "I am pretty sure he is alive, though he looks old enough that if we wait a few minutes that is subject to change."

The old man glared at the boy. "Didn't your Master ever tell you to respect your elders, boy?" he spat.

Danny chuckled. "What are you, the Midget Morality Police?" he said, dropping into a ready stance.

The balding old man looked confused once more. "Curiouser and curiouser…" he said, and then he shifted into a stance of his own. A moment later, the fight was on.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Dani watched as the boy who had arrived to save her battled it out against the cat ghost she had realized was her captor. She attempted to transform, so that she could help him out a little, but found that the focus she needed eluded her. She realized that the cat must have put some kind of drug in the food he had brought her to prevent her from gathering the strength to fight back. So she watched helplessly, as the boy fought a losing battle.

A sudden burst of green from the wall drew her attention to the wall where she saw… Was that KASUMI in a Fenton Peeler Mk 2? She would have to find out later. For now, her motherly friend was providing her would-be savior with fire support while moving her way, probably intending to extract her so that the boy could fight without worrying about her.

When Kasumi reached her, Dani gave the girl a concerned look. "Kasumi! I can't transform!" she cried.

Kasumi nodded, not taking her eyes off of the enemy. "Don't worry, I will get you out of here so that Ryoga can stop holding back." She said, "We have dealt with Mau Mo Lin before, and once we get you out, he should give up."

The boy Kasumi called "Ryoga" suddenly stabbed one finger into a nearby stone wall, shouting "Bakusai Tenketsu!" and the wall exploded, showering both him and Mau Mo Lin with shattered shards of broken stone. The Shrapnel just bounced off of Ryoga, but the ghost cat took several hits before he managed to turn intangible to avoid it. The would-be hero then tried to block a swat from the creature, propelling him across the courtyard, putting distance between himself and the cat ghost and drawing the cat ghost away from the newly made escape route. A smirk on the boy's face showed that this had been his intent.

As Kasumi and Dani started for the hole, Ryoga crossed his arms in front of him and began to focus some kind of energy as he pulled his hands apart.

Dani looked at Kasumi in confusion as the power began to build into a sizable ball. "What is he doing?" she asked.

The armored girl thought for a moment. "I think it is called the Shi-Shi Hokodan." She said as they ran. "It is an energy attack like Ranma's Moko Takabisha. It uses depression ki as its power source."

The ball grew steadily larger as the cat charged toward Ryoga, and Ryoga shifted the ball of energy over his head.

"Depression ki?" Dani asked, "That sounds terrible!"

Kasumi nodded. "It is." She said, "I do wish that Ryoga was not so depressed all the time, but he has a terrible sense of direction, so he is always alone and tends to be shy around people especially women, and as a result he is very shy and lonely, always afraid of rejection and wanting revenge for imagined insults. He learned to channel those feelings into a devastating attack, but I hate to think about the side effects of using such negative energy in such large amounts."

Ryoga reached his limit, and released the now ten-foot diameter ball of sickly green energy at the oncoming cat ghost.

Dani stopped. "Wait, so Ryoga is channeling what amounts to a huge amount of loneliness, fear, anger, and vengeance into an attack?" she asked, as a horrible realization began to hit her. "And he is about to use it on a ghost whose obsession is…!"

The ball of energy hit Mau Mo Lin, bursting in a blinding flash of light.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma and Ukyo were making good time. Ranma's ki senses told him that Dani came this way in her ghost form, leaving a detectable trail of death ki. Ranma hoped that they would catch up to her soon. He was not sure if she could survive much longer if she was staying in that form for too long, so he and Ukyo made the best time they could.

In the meantime Ranma filled Ukyo in on the events of the last 24 hours. Ukyo was kind of surprised at much of it. "So you beat Shampoo and Cologne just dropped the engagement?" she asked, "And she let you into the tribe?"

Ranma nodded.

Ukyo went on. "And Kasumi laid Akane out and took over her engagement?" she asked, and seeing Ranma nod, she cursed. "Damn! I can't compete with Kasumi! I can't fight her, and she is a better cook on anything but okonomiyaki."

Ranma stopped.

Ukyo hoped that he was stopping to reassure her that she wasn't out the running for his hand in marriage. Her hopes were dashed when she saw the shape looming on the horizon ahead of them. It was a white-furred golden-eyed hundred-foot-tall ghost cat.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Clockwork watched the events with a quirk of one ghostly eyebrow. One thing about that Ranma Kid, he certainly makes things interesting.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

A.N. And so we have one chapter finished. I was wondering if anyone knows Danny's Mother's maiden name. I could not find it, but if it was ever mentioned, it would help me with the continuity in the next chapter (there will be a flashback). As always, I love constructive criticism.


	6. More Than One Way

Kindred Spirits ½

By Skye Silverwing

Disclaimer: Umm… Yeah.

Chapter 6: More than one way.

Ukyo stared at the enormous cat-spirit that was rampaging along the sky line ahead of them. She turned her attention to her fiancé, finding that, sure enough, the red-head was very nearly in a comatose state, her eyes glazed over as her mind had been overwhelmed by the terror she was experiencing at that moment.

Sighing, Ukyo pulled the girl off to one side, and then shifted her into a seated position behind a group of trashcans, out direct line of sight of the monstrosity. She hoped that not being able to see it would help the pigtailed martial artist recover faster.

In any case, she knew that the only way she could hope to have a chance with Ranma after this was all over was if she did her level best to save the lost child that she had been willing to fight the Sailor Senshi to protect. Instinctively, she knew that the girl had to be at the center of this disturbance, so if protecting her meant defeating that Giant Monster Cat, then so be it. She only hoped that there was some way to improve her odds of surviving.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Sailor Mercury frowned slightly to herself. She knew the search pattern she and the other Senshi were following was taking them further from the boy they were supposed to be chasing, but she had not voiced the fact, as she honestly felt like he was merely trying to do what he thought was right.

From Sailor Moon's account of events, it seemed to Mercury that the Princess and Saturn had gone off half-cocked and nearly attacked an innocent bystander. Even if the child was a new enemy, did a preemptive attack against her make them any better than the enemies the Senshi had fought in the past?

The more she thought about it, the more she agreed with the boy. They had been out of line and the loss of Moon's and Saturn's weapons were their punishment.

She turned her attention back to the others as Uranus continued to rant about what she was going to do to the boy when she got her hands on him. "I am going to crush him into a pulp and rip him apart, and then I am going to shove my Space Sword up his–" the Older Senshi stopped as she was cut off by Jupiter, who happened to glance behind them.

"OH, MY GOD!" she cried, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!"

The other Senshi spun around to stare in horror at a giant cat creature, which now dominated the Tokyo skyline. They all looked at each other. Recovering the weapons could wait.

They turned as one to look at Sailor Moon, who gave a quick nod. "Let's go, girls!" she said, and they all dashed off, leaping to the rooftops to face the newest threat.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Near the Nekohatten, a white cat with violet highlights sulked as she made her way back home. She was not happy about the result of her battle with the creepy brat-girl. That girl had some nerve standing between her and her betrothed. And the way that Ranma had leapt to the girl's defense, defeating her soundly, was almost enough to make her cry.

By now, Shampoo had no doubt that her Grandmother had heard of her loss, and that her Beloved Ranma would be admitted to the tribe as a female, meaning it would be that much harder for her to win his affections. She would find a way to win him back, though, on her pride as an Amazon.

A pained-sounding honking quack alerted the Amazon-turned-cat to the presence of her least favorite duck.

Mousse looked like he had seen better days. His feathers were matted and burned, showing signs of having faced off with something unexpectedly powerful.

Shampoo moved to steady her fellow Jusenkyo-cursed Amazon, and they both turned to see Cologne standing in the door of the Nekohatten. "Quickly, get inside, both of you." She said. "We have much to discuss."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Kasumi dashed to one side, strafing her target and unleashing a barrage of energy beams from various parts of her suit. The beams struck the giant ghost cat's thick ghostly fur, pealing small amounts of the fur off, where it vanished in a puff of ethereal smoke, only to be replaced almost instantly by more fur beneath it.

On the other side of the beast, Ryoga, having realized the creature's affinity for his energy, had resorted to hurling hunks of masonry from the destroyed temple and its out-buildings at it. These mostly bounced harmlessly off the huge ghost's fur as well.

Dani, who had been captured again, struggled in the creature's clutches, still unable to transform. She pounded uselessly on the thing's giant paws with her fists, while the other two tried to avoid accidently hitting her.

Mau Mo Lin ignored the tiny fighters' pitiful attempts to harm him and grinned happily at his great power boost. His new size had not only allowed him to recapture the bride that had nearly been taken from him, but had shown him a whole new possibility. "Nyow, I am strong enough to take any bride I want- Nya!" he declared, "I WILL TAKE ALL OF TOKYO AS MYAI BRIDE! Nya!"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Happosai casually bounced over the heads of his foes, scrutinizing how the girl and the white-haired boy reacted. He watched every motion of their attacks and defenses, trying to determine who had trained them.

The boy unleashed a barrage of energy beams at the Aged Master, but he ceased when the girl got in the line of fire. Clearly, while sporting similar abilities to the other half-ghost, Vlad, the boy did not share his disregard for life. The boy's powers seemed to make up for the bulk of his style, but the girl's was almost purely a self-trained form of Anything Goes, without the overstated show of power of the Tendo school or the acrobatic flips of the Saotome School. It was slightly unnerving for the Old Letch to face off against a version of his own style with none of the identifying marks of the students he was aware of.

Not that it surprised him much: The Basics of Anything Goes could be taught in a day, meant to instill ease in learning martial arts, as well as capacity to understand techniques on an intuitive level. The filling out of the style comes from life experience. This was why the training for the style is supposed to involve a great deal of travel and training in different places under different masters, as well as getting in to – and out of – all sorts of trouble. It is only after many years of experience had brought the student up to a certain point in their training that students of Anything Goes are taught the most powerful techniques of the school.

Of the two of them, the Boy's training was better defined, meaning that he spent a great deal more time actually fighting than the girl did, but the girl had seen her fair share of combat as well. It intrigued Happosai that the boy had managed to work his powers into the art, wielding them with an ease, power and grace that would have done serious harm to anyone else. At the base of it, the old man was sure, was also Anything Goes.

As he played with these two, one thing became apparent to the aged pervert: both of them had been taught the basics of Anything Goes by the same master. He probed for the bits and pieces of the more advanced techniques that a learned master tends to pepper throughout the training to improve the student's capacity, and found none. This meant that their teacher had only learned the basics. It was possible they had imparted the Anything Goes to their students without even realizing it.

Happosai's testing was cut short however, as his well oiled danger sense triggered a reflexive back-flip barely removing him from the path of a beam of green energy. Beyond him, the White-haired Boy was forced to dodge as well, turning intangible to avoid being struck by the beam as well.

"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER, GHOSTS!"

Happosai landed atop a nearby trashcan in a ready stance, his eyes drawn to the slim, well-built woman in a blue hazmat suit, pointing decent-sized techno-cannon at him. Her stance was firm, her posture sure, and the look on her half-masked face said exactly what she thought about any threat to one of the most important individuals in her life.

From the corner of his eye, Happosai noticed the Ghost-boy retreating through a wall to escape. Smart boy. Sometimes retreat was the best option. If Hell had no fury like a woman scorned, it had NOTHING on an angry mother.

The Aged Master, however, chose to hold his ground, examining the woman's chi. He knew he had seen that pattern somewhere before. A long time ago.

"Maddie?" He ventured, "Maddie Johnson?"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Clockwork looked at the monitors in front of him, smiling slightly as Happosai asked his question of young Danny's mother. At the same time, on another monitor, another scene with the two of them played out.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

It was spring in Spittoon Arkansas, Thirty years earlier. An eight-year-old Maddie Johnson and her 13-year-old sister, Alicia, were walking home from school. Maddie was talking animatedly about a book she was reading about ghost sightings. Alicia was walking faster, since she had little interest in the book. She walked into the general store hoping to see the cute boy that worked there.

As the door closed, separating them, a strong arm caught Maddie's school bag and pitched her small frame ten feet along the side of the building. The girl pushed herself up on the side of the building to face her assailant, only to find it to be none other than William, "Big Billy" Mason. Big Billy was six-foot four, and over three hundred pounds. It was rumored that he had been held back in the second grade five times, and looking at the boy towering over her now, Maddie did not doubt it.

Fear clutched at Maddie's chest as she realized that he had a knife. He held it with a sadistic look on his face that promised her pain if she struggled. Part of her wanted to scream, to shout for anyone to come and help her, but her body was paralyzed with fear.

The boy clamped his free hand hard over her mouth. "Girlie," he said, in a deep gravely voice, "if you so much as peep, Ahs gonna cut you somethin' fierce."

Maddie could only nod in terror as the boy proceeded to rifle through her pockets, taking what little money she had, and then he cut the straps on her backpack dumping its contents unceremoniously on the ground. Satisfied that he had taken everything of monetary value, the body turned back to Maddie and ran a sick, depraved eye over her.

Maddie flinched away from the way he looked at her, suddenly more afraid than ever.

Big Billy began to reach for her, but his hand was struck by a thrown rock.

"Why don't you leave the girl alone before I am forced to bruise something other than your hand." the thrower said, "Also, give her back what you took from her. Or else."

Both victim and attacker turned to see a tiny, shriveled old man sitting atop a lidded trashcan, holding a second rock in his hand.

Billy glared at the old man. "This ain't none of your business, Little Man." He said with a sneer, "So you had better git, er' else you gonna get cut, too."

Happosai sighed, and flicked his wrist. The stone shot forth, striking hard and sending the knife skittering to the ground. The boy growled and said some very unpleasant things, but Happosai merely yawned, casually. This enraged the large boy, causing him to let go of the girl to focus his attention solely on him.

Big Billy charged at the Old Man, intending to grab him and bash his stupid old brains in. He lunged forward, and at the last moment, the old man and the trashcan lid below him vanished. Then, the over-sized brute felt a tap on the back of his head, turning his lunge into an uncontrolled dive, sending him head-first into the trashcan, wedging him inside with his own girth.

Happosai placed the trashcan lid on the boy's upturned rear, drawing a string of juvenile profanities from the depths of the can, and turned his attention to the girl. "Are you alright?" he asked.

The girl stared at him for a moment, then her chin began to quiver, and tears began to flow. Falling to her knees, she wrapped her arms around her savior and cried.

Happosai accepted this, and gently stroked the back of the child's head as she let her emotions out. After a short time, the girl's sobs began to abate, and the Old Master pushed her to arm's length, so he could look into her eyes. "Are you alright, M'dear?" he asked, voice filled with genuine concern for her well-being.

Maddie nodded. "I… I think so…" she said between sniffles. "T-thank you."

The old man smiled at her. "It was nothing, M'dear." He said, "It is the duty of a martial artist to protect those who cannot protect themselves."

Maddie cocked her head slightly. "Martial Artist?" she asked, "Is that like a Super Hero?"

Happosai chuckled at the comparison. "No, it is just someone who knows how to fight the people that like to hurt those that can't fight back." He said, liking this child already.

Maddie looked from the old man to the boy trapped in the trashcan. "Can you teach me to be a Martial Artist?" she asked.

Happosai thought about it for a moment. He had to hook up with his current disciples, Genma Saotome, and Soun Tendo, in just a few days. However, he could not, in good conscience, leave this girl unable to defend herself, should that brute fail to learn his lesson, as such brutes are wont to do. "I can teach you a little." He said finally, "Enough to start you on the path. After that, you must seek to learn more on your own."

The girl nodded. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself." She said, looking a little abashed, "I am Madeline Johnson, but everyone calls me Maddie."

Happosai grinned, and then bowed to the girl. "I am Happosai, Grandmaster of the Anything Goes Style of Martial Arts. Most of my students call me 'the Master' or 'Master Happosai, but you can call me Master Happi, if you want."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Maddie Fenton had been out with her husband, Jack, at a local electronics shop, hoping to pick up some spare parts for the Fenton Ghost shield when word of the incident at Vlad Masters' Mansion had reached them. Maddie had told Jack to go and aide in the search effort for his old friend, while she went to find their kids and make sure that they were safe, should Vlad's assailants decide to attack elsewhere in the city.

Maddie had headed to the school, only to find that the school had already been dismissed, and her kids were not there. Worried, she started to make her way toward the Nasty Burger, where the kids tended to hang out. Part way there, she spotted the Red Huntress, chasing after a fast-moving blur.

Then she heard it. Jazz was screaming. Narrowing her eyes and dashing in the direction of the sound, Maddie vaulted over a long, wooden fence and ran along it as the sound of combat reached her ears. She recognized the tell-tale sounds of the ecto-blasts Phantom used, and the Fenton Bazooka practically leapt into her hands. If that ghost-boy was attacking her Jazzypants, it was the last thing that he would ever do.

Vaulting one last wall, Maddie immediately identified Phantom and what she guessed was a smaller ghost with Jasmine in the middle. She lined up her shot, aiming to take out both ghosts in one shot, and pulled the trigger, watching as the mysterious gnome-thing back-flipped to dodge, while Phantom turned intangible.

"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER, GHOSTS!" she shouted.

As usual, when Phantom saw her, he retreated rather than facing her. The gnome-ghost, however landed atop a trashcan and faced off with her for a long, tense moment before its eyes widened. "Maddie?" it said, "Maddie Johnson?"

Maddie froze, taking a closer look at the creature that had been assailing her daughter. Behind her goggles, her eyes widened. "Master Happi?" she asked.

A smile split the old man's face and he nodded. Maddie dropped her weapon and spread her arms, allowing the old man to hop into a genuine hug.

Jasmine gawked at the two in confusion. "What is going on here?" she asked.

Maddie smiled at her daughter and released the old man to present him. "Jasmine, this is Happosai." She said. "He was my first ever Master in the Martial Arts. Master Happosai, this is my daughter, Jasmine."

Happosai bowed to the girl. "It is good to see a young one properly learning my style for a change." He said. "I have to say, Maddie, your students are both rather impressive."

Jasmine blanched as her mother tilted her head in confusion. "That is quite a complement coming from you, Master Happi." Maddie said, "But when did you meet my son?"

Happosai glanced at Jasmine, who had a look on her face that spoke of a secret at risk of exposure. Cocking one eyebrow, the old man shrugged. "I met him earlier today." He lied, noting the way that Jasmine visibly relaxed. "I did not catch his name, though." He fixed Jasmine with a pointed look. "Fighting Styles are like genetics, though." He continued, "Anyone skilled enough in the art can trace a person's style to determine who trained them."

Jasmine's look became pensive as she took in the implications of what the old master was saying, as well as what he wasn't.

Maddie nodded. "His name is Danny." She said, unaware of the exchange between her daughter and the old man. "I was looking for him, earlier. My husband, Jack Fenton, is currently busy helping with the search of the wreckage of Vlad Masters's Mansion. I wanted to make sure that the kids were okay. I was lucky I found Jazz when I did. Could you help me look for Danny?"

Happosai nodded and cast another meaningful look at Jasmine. "Of course, Maddie," he said cheerfully. "I am sure he must be around here somewhere."

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

In the hidden depths of Ranma's psyche, the most powerful student of Anything Goes cowered in terror. IT was coming.

Ranma would never admit it, but this was what happened every time he had fallen under the effects of his Neko-ken-based fear. His mind would retreat into this secret corridor and he would meet IT. He would cower and hide, but IT would find him anyway, and with it the horror of the pit, the teeth, and the claws.

IT was a tall, feline humanoid, an amalgam of not only the pain and suffering inflicted on the pit full of starved and crazed cats, but all of that that had been inflicted on him over the entire course of his life as well. IT was everything he hated and feared, a lifetime worth of brutal training under one of the world's most Sadistic martial arts teachers. IT embodied his basest instincts, his most feral desires, and his deepest shames.

In a very real sense IT became stronger with every injury he sustained, every wound he endured, and every embarrassment he faced. IT was a twisted version of Ranma himself, a perversion of his hopes and dreams, given form by the mind shattering effects of the Neko-ken.

Ranma cowered in this spot in the corner of his mind, praying that IT would not find him this time, hoping that it would simply return into the depths of his mind as it had so many times before. But Ranma could still sense the horrible menace of the Monster Cat outside, and as long as that menace was there, he knew it would only be a matter of time before IT found him.

Down the corridor, there came a sound of soft, though heavy footsteps announcing IT's approach.

Closing his eyes, Ranma silently begged someone to come and save him.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ukyo hit the ground at a dead sprint, taking in the situation at a glance.

The Giant Ghost Cat was giggling maniacally, clutching a young girl, most likely Dani, in its huge paws as it advanced on another girl in a rather futuristic suit of armor, who was giving ground rapidly while firing beams of energy at it. Meanwhile, Ryoga was doing his level best to bury the oversized spirit with the rubble of the temple.

As she took in the sheer size of the beast, Ukyo realized that she was unsure what to do against it. If Ryoga's attacks were any indication, physical attacks were not going to cut it, and if the attention that thing was paying to the girl it had was any indication, she did not want to get to close and give the thing another hostage. It did not seem to notice the feminine qualities of the girl in the armor, though.

It honestly bothered her that she had nothing she could use to slow the creature at all. Her Okonomiyaki were far too small to be more than a spitball to the thing, and she suspected that it could just phase through her noodles or sticky batter, and her explosive batter would probably just piss it off. The only thing she had left were her spices.

Suddenly, something occurred to her. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a pouch of powder she had acquired as a contingency for Ranma's Neko-ken. The bag of extra-strength Catnip might prove to be just the right distraction to get Dani out of there. Nodding to herself, Ukyo began to execute her plan, then, satisfied with her preparations, she charged into the fray.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Inside the Nekohatten, a quick dose of hot water restored Shampoo and Mousse to their natural states. The two Jusenkyo-cursed teens dressed quickly and joined Cologne in the storage room to find the old Matron tending to the wounds of an unconscious young man wearing, of all things, a tuxedo.

Shifting to her native Mandarin, Shampoo was the first to speak. "Who is this, Grandmother?" she asked, "He looks like he would be more at home on a Formal Ball than out on the streets."

Mousse nodded. "He looks like he got mugged on his way home." He said, adjusting his glasses. "Those bruises seem recent."

Cologne chuckled softly. "This man is one of the allies of the Sailor Senshi, the one they call Tuxedo Kamen." She said, "He and those girls made the mistake of coming down on the wrong side of our newest little sister."

Shampoo flinched at the words, and Mouse cocked his head slightly. "Newest Little Sister?" the blind hidden weapons master asked, "What do you mean?"

He looked at Shampoo, whose eyes began to shimmer with tears, before she finally broke down sobbing, the reality being harder to take than she thought.

Cologne placed a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder and addressed Mousse. "Ranma defeated Xian-Pu utterly while in his female form." She said. "As per the outsider laws, by besting an Amazon totally, Ranma-chan has earned her place as a woman in the tribe. Unfortunately, this invalidates Xian-pu's claim on Ranma-kun, as he is now no longer an outsider."

Mousse's eyes widened behind his thick lenses. "That means that Saotome is no longer my Rival for Xian-pu's love!" he said with a happy smile, "Xian-pu is MI-" He cut off as the lavender-haired Amazon launched him through the wall with a flick of her Bon-Bori.

Glaring after him, she propped the weapon on her shoulder. "Stupid Mu-tsu." She said, "I am not giving up on my hus- er… Ranma, yet."

Cologne smiled at the girl and then turned back toward their still out-cold guest. "I never expected you would, dear." She said, "But for now, I must attend to our guest, and you need to go and assist the others." She pulled out a packet of powder and a pair of technological guns. "Take these to our allies who are fighting, even now, and assist them as you can, and perhaps you will find yourself back in Ranma's good graces."

Shampoo smiled and hugged her grandmother before accepting the items and dashing out the door.

As she disappeared, Cologne turned her attention back to the man on the bed. She produced a small gem and held it out over the man's head. The gem glowed softly, and the old woman chuckled to herself.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Sailor Moon dashed along the rooftops, toward the giant cat that was now undoubtedly an enemy, with the other Sailor Senshi moments behind. "Mars!" she said, turning her head slightly to address her red fuku-clad friend, "What is that thing?"

Mars kept her eyes locked on the thing. "It is some kind of super-sized negative spirit." She said, "I can feel its negative energy from here. Though, where it got the necessary negative energy to get that huge, I have no clue."

Venus pointed at the intermittent beams of energy and the rocks that were already striking the beast. "It looks like someone started the party without us." She said. "So I guess we are being passionately late."

Jupiter rolled her eyes. "That is 'fashionably late', Venus." She said.

Uranus rolled her eyes. "Speaking of late," she said, "where the heck is Pluto?"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Sailor Pluto screamed in irritation and banged her garnet rod against the side of the time gates. She glared again at the blue field shown in the gates and the words that hovered there. "This system has performed an illegal action and must Shut Down. If the problem persists, please contact the System Administrator for assistance."

Pluto cried out in frustration. "I AM the System Administrator, you stupid thing!" She shouted at it, "WORK DAMN YOU! WORK!"

She kicked the side of the machine and unleashed a string of profanities that brought a whole new meaning to the phrase "swear like a sailor", and then she felt a sudden presence behind her.

"Now, is that any way to be treating a finely-tuned machine, Setsuna?" Clockwork said, his lip curled in a barely visible smirk.

Pluto whirled on the Time Ghost. "Clockwork!" she said, "What are you doing here?"

Clockwork smiled enigmatically. "Just making sure you don't break your gate while your service is down." He said.

Pluto's eyes widened. "What do you mean my service is down?" she demanded, "These are the GATES OF FREAKING TIME! Their service does not go down! They draw their power to command Time and Space Directly from the System Mana Pool via the Ginzuishou itself!"

Clockwork sighed. "True, but where is the Ginzuishou now?" he asked simply.

Pluto blinked. "It's with the Princess of course." She said, recalling where Usagi had been just before the Gates had gone to the "Blue Screen of Death", "She was on her way to find the new villain, and…" her eyes widened.

Clockwork smirked enigmatically. "And she came in direct contact with a Chaos Beacon." He finished for her.

Pluto slapped herself in the forehead and cursed herself for not realizing what would happen. "So the beacon affected the influx stream and caused the Gates to read infinite probabilities, overloading it with the sheer number of futures." She said, "Damn! It will take hours for it to reboot, and without its powers, I don't have the range to teleport to help the girls." Suddenly, she looked directly at clockwork. "Would you take me back to earth, Clockwork?"

Clockwork chuckled softly. "I am sorry, Setsuna," He said, "but even as stopping time would destroy you outside this place, merging with the normal timestream directly would surely sweep my form away. I cannot help you."

Setsuna sighed and began the process of rebooting the Gates. A sudden thought made her turn back to the time ghost once more, though. "Will you at least tell me what a Halfa is?" she asked.

Clockwork smiled mysteriously. "That is something you will have to learn from the past once your Gates are back online." He said, and before she could say anything else, he vanished in an ethereal cloud of smoke.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Mau Mo Lin swatted playfully at the shiny metal person firing the energy beams at him while flicking the boy's stones from the air with his tail. He chuckled as he noticed another figure charging at him, using what appeared to be a spatula to sling stones as well. Holding his first intended bride protectively to one side, he slashed the new stones from the air with his other claw, he eyeing this new fighter, unable to determine what he could want.

Ukyo grinned as one after another the stones she flung were annihilated by the Ghost Cats Ghostly Claws. She was also glad to see that her adversary had fallen for her current choice of attire, as she had no desire to end up and another bride.

Following her plan, Ukyo flung two more stones at the beast, and then replaced the stone with one of the ten packets of powdered catnip. The effect was instantaneous.

Mau Mo Lin slashed the incoming packet as he had the stones before it, only to be surprised by the sudden puff of powder. Inhaling the powder, the neko stumbled slightly and as his features flushed, and the bride slipped from his paw.

Ryoga, seeing the little girl falling, kicked off a piece of rubble and flung himself into a rolling catch, bringing the girl up unscathed.

Ukyo locked eyes with the Lost Boy and nodded to him. "Ryoga!" she shouted, "Take the girl and get her to safety!"

Ryoga nodded and turned to run, but as he made his first step, his eyes widened and he pulled the girl close to shield her as a giant paw came down on them in a concrete smashing stomp.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Vladimir Plasmius swore sulfurously as he worked to recover from his injuries in his hidden lair in the Ghost Zone. He had barely escaped the blast of that foolish old man's bomb before it had demolished his mansion, and only then by hurling himself through his ghost portal and into the Ghost Zone before the portal itself was destroyed.

With the loss of his mansion and his portal, he would have to find another way out of the Ghost Zone, even if it meant slipping through Jack's portal. Then he would merely have to pretend that he had not been in the Mansion when it had been destroyed. Sadly, slipping through the Fenton Portal had not been so easy of late, with dozens of Ghost detection alarms that actually worked, in spite of the fact that Jack Fenton was an Idiot.

His only consolation was that there was no way the old fool had successfully survived the blast, and even if he had, there was no way that he could recover quickly enough to face Vlad again in his current, weakened state.

He needed another day or so to recover fully, and then he would return to Amity and blame the destruction of his home on young Daniel. It was a good enough way to advance his plans in spite of the setbacks he had experienced.

Speaking of setbacks…

Vlad pressed the button on his throne. "Skulker!"

A moment later, the Ghostly Hunter rose through the floor. "What is it, Plasmius?" he demanded, "I was in the middle of a hunt for that blasted Box Ghost for Lunch Lady. He seems to have vanished and missed… a date." He shuddered at the very idea.

Plasmius gave the Hunter a fanged grin. "Never mind that," he said, dismissing the missing Ghost, "I have a far more interesting hunt for you."

Skulker grinned.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Mau Mo Lin Glared at his foot, and then at the warrior who had distracted him. "Look what you made me do, Nya!" He bellowed angrily, "You made me crush myai Bride!"

A moment later, a section of ground 50 feet to the left of the Giant Ghost Cat's foot burst upward and Ryoga emerged with the unconscious child in his arms. "The only one getting crushed today is you, Fish-breath!" he declared, drawing the Monster-Cat's attention off of the Chef and back to himself.

Mau Mo Lin roared at the insult. "You DARE to steal myai Bride AGAIN?" He shouted, "I WILL CRUSH YOU!" With that, he charged at Ryoga, covering the distance in moments.

A split second before he reached them, though, he was struck solidly in the chest by a blast of golden energy.

Sailor Venus, not one to let a yummy guy die protecting an innocent bystander, struck a dramatic pose. "That's enough!" she shouted, "I am Sailor Venus! A tough, strong, handsome hero like that guy is a sacred thing! By attempting to kill him, you have committed a terrible crime! And for that I will PUNISH you!"

Sailor Moon and the other Senshi were suddenly aware of the Venus-shaped hole in their Ranks. They hurried to catch up with their fellow heroine.

The Oversized Ghost Cat was about to respond when he was hit by a bolt of lightning. He stumbled back and fell on his rear.

Sailor Jupiter landed next to Venus, staring at Ryoga with a reminiscent smile on her face: A smile that was immediately replaced by a scowl of contempt when she looked at Mau Mo Lin. "All right you overgrown fleabag!" she shouted, "You dared to attack an innocent child, and then you fought those who sought to save her. I would have kicked your but for that alone, but NOBODY MESSES WITH MY SEMPAI!"

The rest of the Senshi paused and looked at each other. "That's her sempai?" Mars asked. "Huh. I had expected him to be taller… and blond."

The others simply shrugged.

Mau Mo Lin pulled himself back to his feet and glared at his attackers. The attacks up until that point had been mere annoyances, but these ones HURT! Then he saw that his attackers were a group of mini-skirted women. The Ghost Cat's face was suddenly split with a large, Cheshire grin. "NEW BRIDES!"

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Inside of his head, Ranma cowered in terror. IT was coming, drawing ever nearer. Soon, IT would be upon him and there would be no stopping IT from shredding his mind like used tissue paper, and then taking over his body and using it to wreak havoc on the surrounding area, endangering everything that Ranma stood for, everything he cared about and all he wanted to protect.

The soft, though heavy sound of footsteps drew nearer and nearer. Thumping nearer with each moment, like certain doom.

Ranma prayed for something, anything to save him.

_Dani._

With that one thought, the haze of terror shattered like a pane of glass before a sledgehammer. Ranma knew Dani was in danger, and that he needed to save her, and in order to do that, he had to face his demon.

Ranma stood and locked eyes with IT.

IT looked back at him, obviously surprised by his sudden strength of will.

They faced off for moments like hours, and then at once they nodded.

Neko-Ranma smiled, her fangs gleaming in the dim light of the Hallway of Ranma's mind. "We must save the cub." She said.

Ranma nodded. "We have to save Dani." He replied, and took Neko-Ranma by the hand.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

Ranma stood from the spot where she had been cowering, a confident smirk on her face, her long, red mane of hair hung behind her, free of her traditional pigtail. She displayed her claws of pure ki and a newly formed tail formed likewise. She was now Leo-Ranma, and Mau Mo Lin would pay for touching her cub.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

AN. Getting this chapter out was tough. I believe I rewrote half of it three or four times. I have been suffering from some serious writer's block, and this being the story least affected by it. As always, I love constructive criticism. If you have ideas about what should happen in one of my stories, let me know. I will be happy to consider it.


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